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This was a prospective non-comparative observational study. Fifteen eyes of 15 patients with advanced keratoconus underwent implantation with a cadaveric, donor negative meniscus-shaped intrastromal lenticule, produced with a femtosecond laser, into a stromal pocket dissected in the recipient cornea at a depth of 120\u00a0\u03bcm. Simulated keratometry, central corneal thickness (CTT), corneal thinnest point (CTP), central epithelial thickness (CET), central and peripheral lenticule thickness, anterior and posterior stromal thickness were measured. Regional central corneal epithelial thickness (CET) and variations in the inner annular area (IAT) and outer annular area (OAT) were also analysed. All parameters were measured preoperatively and 1, 3, and 6\u00a0months postoperatively. The average anterior Sim-k decreased from 59.63\u2009\u00b1\u20097.58 preoperatively to 57.19\u2009\u00b1\u20096.33 D 6\u00a0months postoperatively. CCT, CTP, CET, and OAT increased and IAT decreased significantly after 1\u00a0month. All parameters appeared unchanged at 6-months except that of OAT that further increased. Lenticule thickness was stable. In conclusion we observed that SLAK reshapes the cornea by central flattening with stromal thickening and epithelial thickness restoration.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-81626-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,27]],"date-time":"2021-01-27T06:06:38Z","timestamp":1611727598000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":47,"title":["Epithelial and stromal remodelling following femtosecond laser\u2013assisted stromal lenticule addition keratoplasty (SLAK) for keratoconus"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Mario","family":"Nubile","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Niccol\u00f2","family":"Salgari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jodhbir S.","family":"Mehta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roberta","family":"Calienno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Emanuele","family":"Erroi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jessica","family":"Bond\u00ec","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manuela","family":"Lanzini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yu-Chi","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leonardo","family":"Mastropasqua","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"81626_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"359","DOI":"10.1097\/ICO.0000000000000408","volume":"34","author":"JAP Gomes","year":"2015","unstructured":"Gomes, J. 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