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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 6, 2026; 14(4): 118154
Published online Feb 6, 2026. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v14.i4.118154
Published online Feb 6, 2026. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v14.i4.118154
Safety and efficacy of keratorefractive surgery in diabetes mellitus: A clinical review
Ranjan Kumar Behera, Parul Chawla Gupta, Advanced Eye Centre, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India
Arvind Kumar Morya, Department of Ophthalmology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad 508126, Telangana, India
Srishti Khullar, Department of Ophthalmology, Military Hospital, Agra 282001, Uttar Pradesh, India
Co-first authors: Ranjan Kumar Behera and Parul Chawla Gupta.
Author contributions: Behera RK and Gupta PC have made crucial and indispensable contributions towards the completion of the project as co-first authors; Behera RK, Gupta PC and Morya AK wrote the manuscript; Gupta PC and Morya AK edited the manuscript; Morya AK and Khullar S did the literature search; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Arvind Kumar Morya, Additional Professor, Consultant, Principal Investigator, Senior Researcher, Department of Ophthalmology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bibi Nagar, Hyderabad 508126, Telangana, India. bulbul.morya@gmail.com
Received: December 25, 2025
Revised: January 8, 2026
Accepted: January 19, 2026
Published online: February 6, 2026
Processing time: 42 Days and 18.1 Hours
Revised: January 8, 2026
Accepted: January 19, 2026
Published online: February 6, 2026
Processing time: 42 Days and 18.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Although routinely performed, keratorefractive surgeries pose challenges, especially in diabetics. Diabetes mellitus can result in keratopathy and affect the corneal healing process, which puts refractive surgeons in a dilemma over whether to go ahead with the surgery or not. Although a relative contraindication, refractive surgeries can be performed on diabetics with proper glycemic control and strict postoperative monitoring. Various drugs and molecules are efficacious in cases of diabetic keratopathy.