UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi everyone,

I was diagnosed last May with ectasia and my vision had gone from 20/40 in 2007 to about 20/200 by the time I had the cxl procedure i September. Now I am trying to lessen my risk for having to endure a graft so I am trying to see if anyone has had any success with using a soft lens after cxl and has been able to obtain clear vision. I am not too keen on the rigid lenses because of the scarring possibility. Thanks

Jack

All the best with this; I am wondering, though, why you need a lens after CXL?

Welcome to the forum!

Andrew

CXL in most cases does not change the corneal shape so if you needed contact lenses pre-CXL you are likely to need them post CXL. I am aware of one young lady that invited an optomotrist to her CXL operation. Immediatly after it she was given a plane K3 lens to try and if I recall correctly she immediatly got improved vision. My understanding the K3 lens was used a bit like a banadage lens which is often used are eye surgery.

I am sure someone will enlighten us further.

Since December 20th I've been testing soft lenses which working very well for a graft that is 20 years old.

I used to wear soft toric lenses before my limited topography guided prk + cxl treatment and had no good vision. After the treatment I can now wear soft cls but I believe that prk helped me more on this than cxl.
Lynn knows a lot more but I have read that cxl can help with lenses fitting.
K3 lenses could be ok for you like Gareth wrote.

Hi everyone,

Gareth is quite right... if you needed a contact lens before CXL you will need one afterwards. The CXL stops progression and may improve the prescription afterwards over a period of months but it does not eliminate the need for spectacles or lenses.

Actually Gareth, what I have done with a few patients is work with the ophthalmologist to give a powered bandage lens which isn't the same as a K3. A bandage lens can be any SiH lens but they are usually plano, as you state. However, this often causes people to be really disorientated if they have a high prescription so we were experimenting with using ones that fairly closely match the actual prescription and this was much better for the patients. The bandage lens is in place for a couple of days and then removed. It is at this point I have been looking at using a spherical KeraSoft3 lens to "iron out" the fluctuations that naturally occur as the cornea settles down from CXL. This is proving to be very useful indeed.

As for the general query about soft lenses - absolutely they can and in fact one of the points of CXL is to make the cornea a better shape to make all contact lens fitting easier. It can be argued that a soft lens is best post CXL as it is less likely to mould the cornea while it is settling down.

As to the question of whether one can get good vision - the answer is yes!

Lynn