ABSTRACT

Purpose:

To present preliminary results of corneal cross-linking with UV-A/riboflavin in patients with progressive keratoconus.

Material and Method:

Twelve eyes with progressive keratoconus of 12 patients (five male and seven female) were included in the study. Uncorrected and best-corrected visual acuities, biomicroscopic findings, intraocular pressure measurements, fundoscopic findings, central and the thinnest corneal thickness, and corneal topography parameters were recorded for each patient. All corneal cross-linkings with UV-A/riboflavin were performed by the same person (KG).

Results:

The mean follow-up duration was 3.5 months. Following the procedure, the mean decrease in Sim Kmax was 1.18 D in 5 of 12 patients, and the mean decrease in dK values was 1.03 D in 8 of 12 patients. Topographic spherical equivalent refraction was found to be reduced by an average of 1.13 D. While 67% of patients revealed a mean decrease in cylindrical refraction of 0.94 D, only 25% of patients revealed a mean progression of 1.3 D. Based on the best-corrected visual acuity levels, while only two patients (17%) revealed a decline of one line, rest of the patients revealed either improvement (four patients-33%) or stability (six patients-50%).

Discussion:

The preliminary results of cross-linking with riboflavin/UV-A in patients with clinically proven keratoconus are considerably promising. However, large prospective randomized controlled studies are needed in order to consider this procedure as a gold standard for progressive keratoconus.