CXL - slight cautionary tale
Posted: Fri 24 Jun 2011 11:58 am
So I went off for CXL on Tuesday. My left eye cornea thickness was 291 and my right 480. I was told all about the 'new' treatment where they can use a different type of riboflavin drops to 'plump' up the cornea to thicken it to the required safe limit of 400. But I decided to play safe and go for my right eye first as it was well within the thickness limit.
They removed the top surface and added the riboflavin drops every 2 mins for 30 mins and all was going well. Before the UV light was used they checked the thickness again and my cornea had dropped from 480 to 350, ie below the 400 safety limit. Seemingly this is unusual as normally the drop is only about 40 or 50 once the top surface is removed. But if I have learnt one thing about KC it is to ignore what you are told is normal as it never happens.
Any how, my very clever specialist had some of the 'other' riboflavin drops on hand and he used them to thicken up the cornea and managed to get it to 415 so he could carry on with the UV light. And the whole thing went very smoothly.
However, my understanding is that not everyone who is offering CXL is also offering the treatment to increase the thickness of the cornea and if I had chosen someone with less experience then the procedure would have had to be aborted as it is not safe to use the UV light with less than 400 thickness
So I think it would be a good question to ask a specialist before the start of CXL treatment if they have the skills and drops to increase the thickness of the cornea if necessary. I'm very glad I chose the excellent clinic that I did or my outcome could have been very different
Has anyone else who has had CXL done either started with a thickness of less than 400 or ended up with one part way through CXL. If so what happened in your case? I'm told the thickening procedure does not always work.
Thanks
They removed the top surface and added the riboflavin drops every 2 mins for 30 mins and all was going well. Before the UV light was used they checked the thickness again and my cornea had dropped from 480 to 350, ie below the 400 safety limit. Seemingly this is unusual as normally the drop is only about 40 or 50 once the top surface is removed. But if I have learnt one thing about KC it is to ignore what you are told is normal as it never happens.
Any how, my very clever specialist had some of the 'other' riboflavin drops on hand and he used them to thicken up the cornea and managed to get it to 415 so he could carry on with the UV light. And the whole thing went very smoothly.
However, my understanding is that not everyone who is offering CXL is also offering the treatment to increase the thickness of the cornea and if I had chosen someone with less experience then the procedure would have had to be aborted as it is not safe to use the UV light with less than 400 thickness
So I think it would be a good question to ask a specialist before the start of CXL treatment if they have the skills and drops to increase the thickness of the cornea if necessary. I'm very glad I chose the excellent clinic that I did or my outcome could have been very different
Has anyone else who has had CXL done either started with a thickness of less than 400 or ended up with one part way through CXL. If so what happened in your case? I'm told the thickening procedure does not always work.
Thanks