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Study shows complications related to cross-linking
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CHICAGO – Corneal collagen cross-linking for keratoconus may have remarkable ocular surface complications, a speaker said here.
“Compromised healing is more common than we expect post cross-linking,” Denise Wajnsztajn, MD, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting.
In a retrospective analysis of 206 eyes of 180 patients with keratoconus who underwent corneal collagen cross-linking, epithelial healing failure occurred in 19 eyes, Dr. Wajnsztajn said. The Dresden protocol with hypotonic and regular riboflavin in combination with UVA light was used in all eyes.
The analysis found more than 1 in 10, that is 23 eyes of 22 patients, presented ocular surface related complications including epithelial healing delay, superficial punctate keratopathy (SPK), clinical microbial keratitis and one case of marked persistent edema followed by scarring.
There were no significant differences in gender or age between the group with complications and the group without complications, Dr. Wajnsztajn said.
In the 19 eyes with epithelial healing failure, a delay of 10 days to 10 weeks occurred in four eyes, abnormal hypertophic epithelial healing occurred in four eyes and remarkable SPKs occurred during 4 weeks to 6 months in the other 11 eyes.
“[This kind of abnormal healing] may compromise final visual acuity and cross-linking outcomes,” Dr. Wajnsztajn said
Disclosures: Dr. Denise Wajnsztajn has no financial disclosures.