Postoperative pain is the No. 1 complaint among our surgical patients, especially among those undergoing corneal cross-linking, which involves the creation of a 9-mm corneal epithelial defect.
For our cross-linking patients in particular, this pain is not only extremely unpleasant, but it is also highly discouraging. Many youngsters with keratoconus are so put off by the experience in their first eye that they refuse to have their second eye treated and, as a result, experience needless irreversible progression of their disease with permanent vision loss.
Cross-linking is not the only painful