%0 Journal Article
%T Transepithelial Enhanced Fluence Pulsed Light M Accelerated Crosslinking for Early Progressive Keratoconus with Chemically Enhanced Riboflavin Solutions and Air Room Oxygen.
%A Mazzotta C
%A Balamoun AA
%A Chabib A
%A Rechichi M
%A D'Oria F
%A Hafezi F
%A Bagaglia SA
%A Ferrise M
%A Mazzotta C
%A Balamoun AA
%A Chabib A
%A Rechichi M
%A D'Oria F
%A Hafezi F
%A Bagaglia SA
%A Ferrise M
%J J Clin Med
%V 11
%N 17
%D Aug 2022 27
%M 36078972
%F 4.964
%R 10.3390/jcm11175039
%X OBJECTIVE: To assess the 3-year clinical results of the 18 mW 7 J/cm2 transepithelial enhanced fluence pulsed light M accelerated crosslinking in the treatment of progressive keratoconus (KC) with chemically enhanced hyper-concentrated riboflavin solutions without iontophoresis and with air-room oxygenation.
METHODS: Siena Crosslinking Center, Siena, Italy.
METHODS: Prospective pilot, open non-randomized interventional study including 40 eyes of 30 young adult patients over 21 years old (10 simultaneous bilateral) with early (Stage I and II) progressive KC undergoing TE-EFPL 18 mW/7 J/cm2 ACXL (EFPL M TECXL). The 12 min and 58 s pulsed light (1 s on/1 s off) UV-A exposure treatments were performed with a biphasic corneal soaking using Paracel I 0.25% for 4 min and Paracel II 0.22% for 6 min riboflavin solutions and New KXL I UV-A emitter (Glaukos-Avedro, Waltham, USA) at an air room of 21% oxygenation. All patients completed the 3-year follow-up.
RESULTS: CDVA showed a statistically significant improvement in the third postoperative month (Δ + 0.17 d. e.) with a final gain of +0.22 d. eq. AK showed a statistically significant decrease in the sixth postoperative month (Δ - 1.15 diopters). K itmax showed a statistically significant decrease at 1-year follow-up (Δ - 1.3 diopters). The coma value improved significantly by the sixth month (Δ - 0.54 µm). MCT remained stable during the entire follow-up. No adverse events were recorded. Corneal OCT revealed a mean demarcation line depth at 282.6 ± 23.6 μm.
CONCLUSIONS: Transepithelial enhanced fluence pulsed light M accelerated crosslinking with chemically enhanced riboflavin solution halted KC progression in young adult patients without iontophoresis and no intraoperative oxygen supplementation addressing the importance of increased fluence.