Epithelium-on Cross-linking Versus Observation of Fellow Eyes of Patients With Unilateral Clinically Evident Keratoconus

Launched by ASSIUT UNIVERSITY · Feb 19, 2024

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Keratoconus (KC) is a bilateral asymmetric progressive corneal degenerative disease associated with corneal thinning and protrusion with resultant irregular astigmatism and visual loss.

Although several studies showed that epithelium-off corneal cross-linking (epi-off CXL) is more effective in preventing KC progression compared with epithelium-on corneal cross-linking (epi-on CXL), the removal of corneal epithelium in epi-off CXL might be associated with a number of serious complications such as persistent epithelial defects and sight-threatening infectious keratitis. Additionally, recent ...

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Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• Patients aged 12 to 30 years presented with forme fruste (FFKC) or subclinical KC, based on the following criteria:
• • 1. Normal slit lamp examination
• • 2. Normal topography in FFKC and suspicious topography in subclinical KC with asymmetric bow-tie or inferior steeping (inferior-superior value less than 1.40 D in the anterior sagittal curvature map in pentacam)
• • 3. Clinical and topographic features of KC in the other eye.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • 1. Corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) worse than 0.1 logMAR
• • 2. Corneal thickness at the thinnest location less than 400 μm
• • 3. Severe ocular allergy (active catarrhal keratoconjunctivitis)
• • 4. Other corneal or ocular diseases
• • 5. Systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and autoimmune diseases