Outcomes of localized corneal collagen crosslinking with a conventional device in progressive keratoconus

To evaluate the outcomes of localized crosslinking (L-CXL) for progressive keratoconus utilizing a standard CXL device.

This retrospective cohort study.

included patients diagnosed with progressive keratoconus and treated with a localized cone-centered CXL (based on corneal topography) using the accelerated CXL protocol with a standard CXL device.

We Identified 24consecutive eyes. The average BDVA before CXL was 0.282 ± 0.35 LogMar, remained overall stable at 12-month post-surgery at 0.204 ± 0.173 LogMar (P = 0.395). Ten eyes (of eight patients) (42%) demonstrated an improvement in BDVA at 12 months of 1-4 lines and none of the other eyes lost BDVA. These eyes had significantly lower pre-operative BDVA than the stable eyes (P = 0.034). Ten eyes (of eight patients) (42%) demonstrated an improvement in K-max at 12 months post-operatively, of at least 1D; six of these eyes had improvement in both BDVA and Kmax. None of the eyes developed an increase in Kmax throughout the follow-up.

In this series, cone-centered L-CXL, using a conventional CXL device resulted in significant stabilization and even improvements in BDVA and Kmax in almost half of the eyes, without significant adverse events. Addressing the CXL application onto the affected area results in beneficial results.