Levent Göbel, Pınar Eröz, Ömer Özer, Özer Dursun, Erdem Dinç, Ufuk Adıgüzel, Gülhan Ö. Temel
Turkish Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology - 2025;20(3):185-191
Aim: To comparatively evaluate the efficacy of accelerated corneal collagen cross-linking (aCXL) treatment in patients under and over 18 years of age. Material and Method: This study included 74 eyes of 55 patients diagnosed with progressive keratoconus who underwent aCXL treatment. Patients included in the study; were divided into two groups: those under the age of 18 (Group 1, n=25) and those aged 18 and over (Group 2, n=49). Preoperative and postoperative spherical/cylindrical refractive values, best-corrected visual acuity (BCV A), keratometric values, topographic astigmatism, topographic keratoconus indices, and aberrometric indices of the patients were evaluated separately and compared. Results: While there was no significant change in spherical refraction value in group 1, there was a significant decrease in spherical refraction value in group 2 (p=0.48, p<0.0001, respectively). In both groups, the highest decrease was in the K max value. However, there was no significant difference in the decrease rates between the two groups. However, there was a significant increase in BCV A values obtained after CXL in both groups (p=0.04, p<0.0001, respectively). A significant decrease in both low- and high-order aberrations was found in both groups after aCXL. When the corneal curvature indices were evaluated, it was observed that there was a significant change in all indices except the IHA (height decentralization index) value. Conclusions: Accelerated CXL treatment is a safe method that can stop the progression of keratoconus patients in the pediatric and adult age groups.
