CXL: Seven Years Later

Corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) has been used for the treatment of corneal ectasias since the first human pilot study was performed in 2003 in Dresden; 12 years later, it’s a well-established and well-understood procedure that continues to evolve in terms of both applications and methodology (1). To better understand the long-term safety and efficacy of the treatment, a team of ophthalmologists from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ National Health Service Foundation Trust in London have spent the last seven years conducting a prospective cohort study of patients receiving epithelium-off CXL at their hospital (2). Following the treatment, keratoconus was not observed to progress in any of the treated eyes, and the improvements observed in both topographic and wavefront parameters after one year were maintained at both five and seven years after CXL was performed.