Efficacy of standard and accelerated (10 minutes) corneal crosslinking in keratoconus stabilization

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate whether Accelerated CXL for 10 minutes is as effective as standard CXL for 30 minutes for the treatment of progressive keratoconus. Patients and Methods: Eighty-two eyes of 62 patients with keratometry examinations performed before and 6 months after surgery were studied. A total of 39 eyes underwent standard CXL with UVA irradiation of 3 mW/cm2 for 30 minutes and 32 eyes underwent Accelerated CXL UVA irradiation of 9 mW/cm2 for 10 minutes. The eyes of all patients had corneal thicknesses of at least 450 microns (400 microns after epithelium removal). Results: The means of the keratometry measurements in the preoperative period for the eyes subjected to standard CXL were 46.27 dioptres (D) on the flat axis (K1) and 48.93 D on the steep axis (K2). Postoperatively, K1 was 46.21 D and K2 was 48.97 D, a difference without statistical significance (p = 0.47 and p = 0.48, respectively). In the Accelerated CXL protocol, the preoperative measurements were 44.55 D and 46.19 D for K1 and K2, respectively. In the postoperative period, K1 was 43.37 D, and K2 was 46.64 D (p = 0.38 and p = 0.27, respectively). In the standard group, the mean maximum keratometry (Kmax) preoperatively was 55.87 D, with no statistical significance (p = 0.29). In the preoperative period, the Kmax of the Accelerated group was 51.15 D, with no statistical significance (p = 0.32). Conclusion: Based on the keratometry results, the accelerated protocol was as effective as the standard protocol for keratoconus stabilization.