Femtosecond-assisted anterior lamellar corneal staining-tattooing in a blind eye with leukocoria

PURPOSE: To describe the technique and a case report of femtosecond-assisted anterior lamellar corneal staining-tattooing in a blind eye with leukocoria. METHODS: An anterior lamellar corneal free flap (thickness: 120 μm, diameter: 7.0 mm) was created using femtosecond laser (IntraLase-AMO, Irvine, CA). The free flap was removed and immersed in a commercially available black tattoo pigment. After 9 minutes of flap incubation with the tattoo pigment solution, the flap was continuously irrigated for 3 minutes with balanced salt solution (Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX) until all the excessive pigment was removed. The flap was repositioned on the residual corneal bed, and a bandage contact lens was placed. RESULTS: There were no intraoperative or postoperative adverse events seen by the 6-month follow-up, although an excellent cosmetic result was achieved. CONCLUSIONS: The technique of FALT is simple and efficient for treating cosmetically blind eyes with leukocoria and may overcome the limitations of previously reported techniques. The long-term safety of the commercially available corneal tattoo dyes should be studied further.