Corneal crosslinking technology (CXL) update

[caption id="attachment_5992" align="alignnone" width="750"] David Touboul MD presents on CXL with corneal rings as Rudy Nuijts MD, PhD and Thomas Kohnen MD, PhD look on.[/caption] With corneal crosslinking (CXL) finally approved this year by the US Food and Drug Administration, ESCRS members schooled their American colleagues on the latest in CXL technology at Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day, sponsored by the International Society of Refractive Surgery, at the 2016 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Annual Meeting in Chicago. In his review of indications and long-term outcomes for CXL in keratoconus, Rudy MMA Nuijts MD, PhD, of the Academic Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands, noted that standard Dresden Protocol CXL provides stable long-term results for visual acuity and keratometry in 90% of patients. In children, epithelium-off CXL provides persistent treatment effect up to four years in 80-90% of patients. Preliminary data suggests CXL will lead to a decrease of at least 25% in corneal transplants for keratoconus. Topography-guided photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) combined with CXL has proven an effective treatment for post-LASIK ectasia and visual rehabilitation over 12 years, said A John Kanellopoulos MD of Athens, Greece, and New York University, USA. Other presenters were Thomas Kohnen MD, PhD, of Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, on accelerated CXL; David Touboul MD, of the University of Bordeaux, France, on CXL with corneal rings; and Simonetta Morselli MD, of the University of Verona, Italy, on CXL for treating corneal infections.