Management Outcomes in Pediatric Keratoconus: Childhood Keratoconus Study

The Global Delphi Panel of Keratoconus (KC) and Ectatic Diseases formulated management guidelines for KC in 2015. The aim of this study was to evaluate management outcomes in pediatric KC.

Prospective, interventional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital including KC patients aged <18 years. Based on disease severity and progression of disease, patients were prescribed either glasses or contact lenses (CLs) or underwent corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL), deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK), or penetrating keratoplasty (PK). Main Outcome Measures. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), manifest cylinder, maximum keratometry, thinnest corneal thickness, total higher order aberrations, and corneal hysteresis at baseline and 12 and 24 months.

116 eyes of 62 patients with a mean age of 14.76 ± 2.77 years were included. 32.8% of the eyes (n = 38) achieved satisfactory BCVA with glasses/CLs only. Corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) was performed in 43.1% of the eyes (n = 50) with progressive KC and halting of progression was noted in 83.3% (n = 35) of the eyes at 2 years. 7.7% of the eyes (n = 9) were managed for acute hydrops. DALK and PK were successfully performed in 9.5% (n = 11) and 6.9% (n = 8) of the eyes with BCVA of 0.14 ± 0.09 and 0.08 ± 0.12 at 2 years, respectively.

Pediatric KC cases with progression show good visual and aberrometric outcomes and halting of progression after CXL. DALK and PK have good outcomes. The global consensus guidelines showed good clinical utility in pediatric patients. Presence of VKC did not have an impact on the outcomes of CXL in pediatric patients.