Should I Undergo Collagen Crosslinking with Riboflavin For My Keratoconus?
April 1, 2010
I am 22 years of age and have been diagnosed with keratoconus. One of my doctors took an Orbscan and said that I need to do the collagen crosslinking with riboflavin (C3-R) procedure.
I have cylindrical power of -2.5 on my right eye and -2.0 in my left eye, and spherical power of -1 in both eyes.
My questions are:
1. Is this C3R is needed very urgently for me, or shall i continue with corrective contact lenses?
2. What will happen if i doesn’t do the C3-R procedure?
3. Is C3-R a complex procedure?
4. Will the C3-R improve the keratoconus quickly?
5. Is there is any other treatment for keratoconus besides C3-R or Cornea Transplantation?
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Comments
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its an easy procedure. for about 20 minutes, drop after drop is placed on your eye, and then the special light is applied. thats it.
kc will typically progress slowly as you get older. the cross linking may very well halt it or slow it down. it won’t make a tremendous difference in your vision- it will be a little better in a few weeks, and may allow you to wear contact lenses for many more years.
if you are doing well in contact lenses, you may wish to wait on the cross-linking. it’s still kinda new.
intacs is another nice procedure that can slow things down. transplant is the last option- and today, they can do transplants that are not full-thickness, which means no risk of rejection and faster healing.
you really need to go to a world-class cornea person, as the surgical techniques are evolving very quickly now.
C3R is a 45 minute in office treatment which halts the progression of keratoconus.
Ideally patients should be treated when they are diagnosed.
The youngest patient we have treated was 11 years old.
The sooner treated the less loss of vision or change in prescription you will experience.
marie- i think since it’s so new, that it should not be aggressively promoted as you suggest- that’s my typical view on all new procedures. also, you have to be careful about saying it “halts” kc- that has not been proven, as far as i have read. (in fact, it’s impossible to prove unless you can follow the patient for about 5-10 years, which is impossible at this time, since it has only been around for a couple of years.) to my knowledge, it can slow it down quite a bit.
Great info on Keratoconus here given by your posts ! thanks. Gray
We have been performing Holcomb C3-R (crosslinking) since 2003. 99.03% have had a one time treatment and have not had any progression. Our results were reported at both the American Academy of Opthalmology Annual Meeting and American Academy of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. While it is true we do not have more than 10 years of follow-up, internationally, results are over 10 years and appear very promising in that progression is halted. Will we need to retreat in 10, 20, 30 years – it is not known. At the moment though, patients have stop progressing and that is very exciting and promising.
i was not aware of your presentations at the meeting. im happy to hear you are getting such nice results.