Purpose:
To evaluate the effect of age on corneal cross-linking treatment in keratoconus patients.
Material and Method:
We retrospectively evaluated forty-nine eyes of 45 patients with keratoconus that were applied corneal cross-linking treatment. The patients were divided into three groups; pediatric, adolescent and adult. The first group (25 years old) consisted of 17 eyes. Preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA log-MAR), central corneal thickness (CCT), and maximum corneal steepness (MCS) were compared with postoperative 13.8±3.83-month follow-up values.
Results:
After the treatment, a statistically significant improvement in visual acuity was found in group 1 (p<0.50).Visual acuity improvement was not statistically significant in group 2 and group 3 (p=0.434, p=0.21, respectively). Log-MAR-visual acuity differences were not statistically significant among the groups (p=0.182). No statistically significant change was found in postoperative CCT values in all groups (p=0.353, p=0.308, p=0.692, respectively). MCS values did not change statistically significantly at the postoperative evaluation (p=0.605, p=0.574, p=0.266, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference when comparing the three groups (p=0.856). Maximum corneal flattening was observed in group 3, but it was not statistically significant (p=0.282).
Discussion:
It was determined that the results of corneal cross-linking treatment in keratoconus did not demonstrate any statistically significant changes among the age groups with respect to visual acuity, CCT and MCS values. (Turk J Ophthalmol 2012; 42: 450-3)
Keywords: Keratoconus, corneal cross-linking, age