Effects of anisotropy in cornea thermal conductivity on temperature profiles in RF thermokeratoplasty

This work presents a theoretical study on the effect of possible anisotropy of the thermal conductivity of the cornea during the heating with RF currents in radiofrequency thermokeratoplasty. The model is based on the finite element method and includes a fragment of cornea, aqueous humor and a stainless steel electrode on the cornea surface. The results reveal that the effect of the possible anisotropy in cornea thermal conductivity is more important during heatings of several seconds and negligible for short duration applications less than 100 ms.