THE SIMULATION STUDY ON THE DEFORMATION OF RABBIT CORNEA AFTER REFRACTIVE SURGERY WITH DIFFERENT CUTTING THICKNESS

Abstract

Based on the inflation tests data of rabbit cornea, finite element analysis has been applied to determine the material parameters, simulate corneal refractive surgery and study postoperative corneal deformations. The corneal profile and apical displacement data were recorded during the inflation experiment of five rabbit corneas. Inverse finite element method was applied to determine the material parameters from the corneal apical displacements. Based on the determined material parameters and the corneal profile information, we established five corneal geometry models that simulate refractive surgery with different cutting amounts. We analyzed displacements at corneal apex and cutting edge, corneal surface curvatures under different pressures. Both Ogden model ([Formula: see text]) and Yeoh model ([Formula: see text]) gave good fits to the experiment data. The maximum of error square sum between the calculated value and the experimental value of the displacements per point at the corneal profile was less than 0.06[Formula: see text]mm. For each model with the increase of pressure, the displacement at cutting edge was larger than that at corneal apex, both of them increased, and curvature radius of anterior and posterior corneal surface increased slowly, but the refractive power decreased slowly and tended to be a stable value. Under the same pressure, the larger the cutting amount, the larger the displacements at corneal apex and cutting edge with a cutting edge displacement of about 1.10 (less ablation model) and 1.02 (larger ablation model) times the corneal vertex displacement. Both Ogden model and Yeoh model can be used to describe corneal mechanical responses of inflation experiment. After refractive surgery, the displacement at cutting edge is larger than that at corneal apex, the curvature radius of anterior (posterior) corneal surface increases (decreases), and the refractive power decreases.