Treatment of keratoconus with CXL method

Treatment of keratoconus with CXL method (Corneal Cross Linking)

The word is a compound of the Greek: kerato, ie. cornea, and konos, ie. cone, sloping. Keratoconus is a corneal disease in which its usual shape of a spheral canopy arches in a slightly conical shape, which damages the vision. The disease progress depends on the patient`s age and on the duration. The sooner the beginning, the quicker the development of the disease is. Keratoconus often affects both eyes, mostly asymetrically.

Keratoconus is a hereditary disease and it sometimes skips over generations. It often starts at teenage age and it is related to allergies. When you rub your eyes, you may quicken progress of the disease.

At the beginnings of the disease wearing glasses is usually enough treatment. With the progress of the disease, the cornea gets thinner and it changes its shape, which causes irregular astigmatism. This cannot be corrected with glasses; that is why the disorder of cornea curvature is corrected by insertion of air-permeable contact lenses. Even though glasses and contact lenses correct the vision, they do not have any influence on stopping the progress of the disease. The treatment used to lie in a rather complicated and a high-risk as well as expensive cornea transplantation.

The principle of photochemical hardening was invented by prof. Theo Seiler from an eye clinic in Zurich, Switzerland where he taught Dr. Stodůlka about it in the autumn of 2006. In the course of the surgery, firstly the eye shape is modificated and then this shape is hardened so that it gets stabilized. The hardening process runs in two steps. Vitamin B2 is applied into the tissue which is later irridated by a special lamp. Chemical couplings arise and they harden the eye without worsening its transparency. Thanks to this fact a lot of patients can avoid cornea transplantation and they can choose treatment of keratoconus with a far more gentle and safer method.

The surgery is performed on an outpatient basis.