Purpose
To compare the pre-treatment and 5 year post-treatment visual acuity and corneal topographic indices in eyes with keratoconus that were treated with corneal collagen crosslinking.
Methods
An observational, uncontrolled, retrospective study of 7 patients (12 eyes) with keratoconus that were treated with epithelium-off corneal collagen crosslinking between March and December of 2007 was conducted. Pre-treatment and 5 year post-treatment anterior corneal surface (keratoconus index, index of vertical asymmetry, index of surface variance, central keratoconus index, minimum radius of curvature, index of height asymmetry, index of height decentration) and normalized Belin-Ambrosio indices (front elevation, back elevation, pachymetric progression, corneal thinnest point and the total analysis) were obtained by the Pentacam topographer, Oculus Inc. (Wetzlar, Germany). The uncorrected visual acuity and best corrected visual acuity were also compared.
Results
The 5 year follow-up showed that both central keratoconus index (P= 0.0452) and best corrected visual acuity (P= 0.0313) improved following corneal collagen crosslinking. At 5 years of follow-up, there were no statistically significant differences between the pre-operative and post-operative values of either the other anterior surface variables or the normalized Berlin-Ambrosio indices.
Conclusions
Even though the surface of the cornea does not appear to be dramatically altered after five years of corneal collagen crosslinking, improvement in visual acuity is obtained and remains constant.
Keywords: 479 cornea: clinical science •
421 anterior segment •
681 refractive surgery: corneal topography