Correlation Between Myopic Refractive Error, Corneal Power and Central Corneal Thickness in the Egyptian Population

PURPOSE: To find out the correlation between myopic refractive error, corneal power and central corneal thickness (CCT) in the adult Egyptian population. METHODS: A retrospective observational cross-sectional study in which we analyzed the preoperative data of 1401 Egyptian myopic patients (1401 eyes) who underwent keratorefractive procedures between 2016 and 2019 in a private eye surgery center. RESULTS: Mean age of patients was 28.1± 5.79 years (range 18–40). Mean CCT in the Egyptian population sample in our study was 539.23± 32.24. Only the corneal power parameters (flat K, steep K and average K) showed a statistically significant difference (p-value <0.001) between males and females. A statistically significant and weak positive correlation of average K with the absolute value of refractive astigmatism (r = 0.063, p-value = 0.018), and between myopic error with average K (r = 0.136, p-value <0.001) was found. CONCLUSION: Among the myopic adult Egyptian population, the greater the myopic error measured, the steeper the cornea, with a weak positive correlation between refractive error and corneal power.