Long-term efficacy and safety after corneal collagen crosslinking in pediatric patients: Three-year follow-up

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of standard corneal collagen crosslinking for children with progressive keratoconus. Methods: Prospective study including 26 eyes of 26 patients younger than 18 years old with progressive keratoconus at Oftalmosalud Instituto de Ojos, Lima, Peru. Standard epi-off corneal crosslinking was performed in all eyes between January 2012 and January 2013. Pre- and postoperative evaluation (at 3 years) included uncorrected and best-corrected visual acuity and Scheimpflug analysis. Crosslinking failure was defined as an increase in maximum keratometry (K_max) of more than 1 diopter after 1 year or more. Results: Mean uncorrected visual acuity improvement was 0.24 LogMAR (p = 0.07) and mean best-corrected visual acuity improvement was 0.18 LogMAR (p = 0.01). None of the eyes lost more than one line in the best-corrected visual acuity. Four eyes (15.38%) lost two lines in the uncorrected visual acuity at 3 years postoperative. Mean steeper keratometry improvement was 1.14 diopters (p = 0.60). Progression rate was 23.07%. Conclusion: Standard epi-off corneal collagen crosslinking is safe and effective to halt the progression of the keratoconus with significant improvement in the best-corrected visual acuity at 3-year follow-up.