Success of Corneal Cross-Linking

In the April 2024 edition of the journal Cornea, Dr. Anne Marie Hagem and colleagues published a decrease in the rate of corneal transplants performed for keratoconus.

Keratoconus is a disease in which the cornea changes shape, affecting the vision negatively. The “traditional” method of fixing poor vision from advanced keratoconus is a corneal transplant surgery. Around 2007, a new method of addressing keratoconus was introduced into the practice Dr. Hagem was studying. This method is corneal cross-linking, which “freezes” keratoconus so that it hopefully doesn’t progress to the advanced level. Dr. Hagem looked at data from the pre-cross-linking era and well into the cross-linking era. The group found a large decrease in the number of corneal transplants for keratoconus at the second time point.

This data speaks to how cross-linking is decreasing the number of advanced cases of keratoconus. The decreased need for corneal transplant surgery is a great thing for patients.