Corneal cross-linking treats ectasia after refractive surgery

A new multicenter trial of the U.S. Crosslinking Study Group showed that corneal cross-linking is effective in improving the maximum keratometry value and corrected and uncorrected distance vision in patients with corneal ectasia after refractive surgery.The study was performed in order to achieve FDA approval of CXL for this indication. It involved 11 sites in the U.S. and enrolled 179 patients randomly assigned to a treatment group or a sham control group. In the treatment group, riboflavin was administered followed by ultraviolet A irradiation according to the standard Dresden protocol. Patients in the control group received riboflavin without UVA exposure and received standard CXL treatment after 3 months if needed.