Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate an association between cigarette smoking and keratoconus.
Methods: :
Keratoconus patients which were treated by corneal collagen crosslinking between June 2006 and November 2007 were asked anamnestically for their smoking habits. As smoker was included with at least daily 2 cigarettes for at least one year.
Results: :
From June 2006 to November 2007 180 patients with keratoconus (age 28±9 years) were asked and 171 (95 %) were non-smoker and only 9 (5 %) were smoker. The frequency of smokers in the keratoconus group is 5 % with the 95 % confidential interval between 2,31% till 9,28 %. In the general population in the age range of 15 to 30 years the frequency of smokers is 30 - 40 %. With the Chi-square test there is a significant relation between non-smoker and keratoconus (P<0.001).