Abstract
Purpose:
To analyze one-year outcomes of epithelium-off corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) in young patients (<18 years) with progressive keratoconus (KC).
Methods:
In this Prospective, non-randomized, interventional clinical study fifty-one KC patients (84 eyes) were enrolled. All patients underwent treatment with the use of epithelium-off riboflavin- ultraviolet A (UV-A) induced CXL. Main Outcomes Measures were Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), corneal topography, tomography and endothelial cell count were evaluated at baseline, 6 and at 12 months follow-up.
Results:
Mean patient age was 16.50 ± 1.68 years (range, 13-18 years). The UCVA improved from 0.65 ± 0.41 to 0.55 ± 0.42 (P = .34) and the CDVA, from 0.26 ± 0.21 to 0.16 ± 0.16 (P =.74). The flat K value decreased from 46.68 ± 2.65 D to 46.31 ± 2.60 D (P = .61), and the steep K value decreased from 49.83 ± 3.19 D to 49.45 ± 3.09 D (P = .74). The mean preoperative corneal pachymetry at the thinnest point was 456.26 ± 52.50 microns. This value decreased to 393.26 ± 76.96 microns at 6 months (P <0.001) and to 423.79 ± 72.41 microns at 12 months (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
Corneal crosslinking seems to be a safe and effective procedure to stabilize progressive keratoconus in young patients at one year postoperatively.
Keywords: 574 keratoconus