Visco-elastic and thermal-induced damaging in time-dependent reshaping of human cornea after conductive keratoplasty

With the aim of investigating the role played by both the radiofrequency-induced thermal damaging and the viscoelasticity of the tissue in human cornea surface reshaping—time dependent key factors for the success of the surgical outcome in the short-term post-intervention period—the Conductive Keratoplasty (CK, a surgical technique used for the correction of farsightedness) has been simulated with reference to the protocol adopted for moderate hyperopia. By means of a transient thermal analysis, the amount of the local thermal-induced tissue damaging has been computed in order to remap the constitutive properties of the corneal tissue. Successively, a mechanical non-linear analysis has been performed for predicting the corneal curvature around the optical zone during the post-surgery period. The study aims to contribute some firm thermo-mechanical roots to better understand the corneal tissue response to thermal insults and its reshaping predictability in a long period.