Abstract
Purpose :
The corneal crosslinking (CXL) has become a powerful treatment procedure for arresting the progression of keratoconus. Nevertheless, the working principle behind this treatment option is not still fully understood. Thus, some of recent developments directed towards modifying the CXL procedure were not successful in clinics. The present research is designed to characterize tensile properties of anterior and posterior crosslinked corneal flaps in order to better understand underlying mechanisms of the CXL treatment procedure.
Methods :
Anerior and posterior flaps were excised from porcine corneas using a DSAEK system. The excised flaps were crosslinked and a DMA machine was used to measure the tensile properties after the CXL treatment. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of full thickness corneas, which were crosslinked from the posterior and anterior side, were determined.
Results :
Although the CXL treatment had a significant influence on the tensile properties of of anterior flaps (p<0.05), it did not improve the mechanical resposne of posterior flaps significantly. It was also found that CXL procedure only improved the mechanical properties of full thickness porcine corneas when they were crosslinked from the anterior side (p<0.05).
Conclusions :
The inhomogenous compositon of the corneal stroma signifincalty affects the stiffening effect of the CXL treament option.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.