Collagen Crosslinking (C3R) for keratoconus
Traditional C3R
- Is an out-patient procedure.
- It is performed under topical anaesthesia (eye drops).
- Head tilting or turning.
- The skin of the eye (epithelium) is removed.
- Riboflavin eye-drops are applied to the cornea for 30 minutes.
- The eye is then bathed in a very specific wavelength of light-UVA for 30 minutes.
- The combination of the light and riboflavin causes chemical bonds to form within the cornea, increasing its rigidity and stability.
- The whole process traditionally takes about 90 minutes.
- A protective soft contact lens is worn for about 24 hours, and eye drops need to be instilled to limit the risk of infection and corneal haze. brPachymetry can also assist in evaluating whether the current medical treatment is working well and is often an accurate means of assessing the progression of various eye disorders.
What is Accelerated Crosslinking?
The accelerated crosslinking mirrors the above procedure above but differs and benefits patients in 3 ways:
More importantly, accelerated crosslinking allows thinner corneas to be crosslinked with greater precision, potentially decreasing the risks associated for crosslinking. In effect those patients outside current treatment criteria can be crosslinked and receive the benefits. Reduces cross-linking time from one-hour to a few minutes, adding to patient comfort and experience. The new Riboflavin solutions can penetrate the epithelium and this procedure is called “Transepithelial Corneal Collagen Cross-linking”.
We use two systems:
The UV-X™ Illumination System – a 30 minute Riboflavin soak time and then typically 30 minutes of UVA exposure – this takes about 1 hour in the theatre time The Avedro KXL® Accelerated Cross-Linking system- a 3-5 minute soak time and then typically 3 minutes of UVA exposure. Both the procedures are extremely safe, and no sight-damaging complications have been reported.
Marketed by Avedro, Inc., Lasik Xtra is a corneal crosslinking procedure that applies the company’s VibeX riboflavin ophthalmic solution to the eye’s surface (cornea), and then uses Avedro’s KXL System to irradiate the cornea with UV-A rays. Lasik Xtra is an accelerated form of crosslinking which takes two minutes and makes it more convenient to combine with LASIK.
