Afraid of cancer

[sarkac]

hi.. i have a cr3 coming upin december and i am scared

do both c3R and clx use UVA? can that have side effects?
are there other surgeries that use UVA?

[caroline6505]

Hi

I'm afraid I cannot tell you with surety that C3R is safe in relation to UV exposure and cancer. What I can tell you is that I've had crosslinking in both eyes in July/August. Beforehand I did a bit of research and was satisfied that enough data had been gathered over 13 years to suggest it's effective and safe, and having weighed up prospect of crosslinking against vision continuing to deteriorate rapidly (which is had been over past 2 years) and me potentially facing a transplant, I opted for crosslinking. The idea is that the eye is saturated with riboflavin which reacts with the light to produce reactive oxygen molecules that cause the formation of chemical bonds between and within the corneal collagen fibrils, making them stiffer. Safety studies ongoing since the 1990s have so far showed that the endothelium was not damaged by the treatment if proper UV irradiance was maintained and if the corneal thickness exceeded 400 microns.

Best wishes

Caroline.