Corneal Cross-Linking: Treatment for Cornea Disease

By Lawrence M Hopp

Have you been diagnosed with corneal disease? If so, you undoubtedly have questions. How will your eyesight be affected? How can your condition be treated? What are the potential complications of treatment? Dr. Lawrence M. Hopp, M.D., M.S. is a cornea specialist, fellowship-trained in refractive surgery, who has treated thousands of patients with diseases of the cornea. He understands your concerns and offers information that will help ease your anxiety. In Corneal Cross-Linking: Treatment for Cornea Disease, he discusses how cornea diseases develop and how they are best treated. He covers such topics as: signs and symptoms of corneal diseases; corneal disease diagnosis; newest treatments, such as collagen linking, cornea transplants and when they are needed, potential complications of treatment, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Jul 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781943886791

Book preview

An Addicus Nonfiction Book

Copyright 2018 by Lawrence M. Hopp, M.D. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, write Addicus Books, Inc., P.O. Box 45327, Omaha, Nebraska 68145.

ISBN: 978-1-943886-65-4

Cover design and typography by Jack Kusler

This book is not intended to serve as a substitute for a physician. Nor is it the authors’ intent to give medical advice contrary to that of an attending physician.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hopp, Lawrence M., author.

Title: Corneal cross-linking : a patient’s guide to treatment / Lawrence M. Hopp, MD.

Description: Omaha, Nebraska : Addicus Books, Inc., [2018] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017053919 (print) | LCCN 2017054368 (ebook) | ISBN 9781943886784 (pdf) | ISBN 9781943886807 (kindle) | ISBN 9781943886791 ( epub) | ISBN 9781943886654 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Cornea—Diseases—Treatment. | BISAC: HEALTH & FITNESS / Vision. | MEDICAL / Lasers in Medicine. | SELF-HELP / General.

Classification: LCC RE336 (ebook) | LCC RE336 .H67 2018 (print) | DDC

617.7/190598—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017053919

Addicus Books, Inc.

P.O. Box 45327

Omaha, Nebraska 68145

www.AddicusBooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To our patients who are affected by corneal diseases. Hopefully, this book will enlighten, educate, and encourage you to know that new treatments are available. And to my family, whose support made this project possible.

Contents

Introduction

1 Corneal Cross-Linking: An Overview

2 Getting a Diagnosis of Keratoconus or Post-LASIK Ectasia

3 Understanding Corneal Cross-Linking

4 Preparing for Your Corneal Cross-Linking Procedure

5 Undergoing Corneal Cross-Linking

6 Recovery from Corneal Cross-Linking

Resources

Glossary

About the Author

Introduction

This book explains corneal cross-linking, a recently FDA-approved procedure for treating distorted corneas. If you have corneal disease—keratoconus or post-LASIK ectasia—you already know how your eyesight can be affected: you may suffer from blurriness and distorted vision, night glare and sensitivity to light. You may see halos around lights at night.

These symptoms worsen over time and can lead to significant vision loss. The standard treatments that have been available for these corneal diseases in the past could only manage the symptoms with eyeglasses or contact lenses or other options that were only stopgap measures before a corneal transplant was eventually needed. But now, a revolutionary treatment, corneal cross-linking, has been approved (in 2016) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat both of these conditions. The procedure takes only sixty to ninety minutes, and strengthens and stabilizes corneas that have become distorted. Although the procedure can’t reverse previous damage to the cornea, corneal cross-linking is intended to halt the progression of keratoconus and post-LASIK ectasia. And fortunately, the procedure has a high likelihood of eliminating the need for a corneal transplant in the future.

I hope this book will help you understand the corneal cross-linking procedure and how it might help you.

1

Corneal Cross-Linking: An Overview

In 2016, the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved corneal cross-linking. The approval of this procedure marked a new era in the treatment of corneal disease that causes distortions in the shape of the cornea. Such changes lead to nearsightedness and blurry vision. But now, a safe and effective treatment is available to halt the progressive distortion of the cornea.

What Is Corneal Cross-Linking?

Corneal cross-linking is a procedure used to halt the progression of two corneal diseases—keratoconus and post-LASIK corneal ectasia. The procedure strengthens a misshapen cornea by restoring the cornea’s underlying support beams, called collagen fibers which are no longer giving the structure its natural, rounded shape.

During a corneal cross-linking procedure, vitamin B2 eyedrops are placed on the surface of the eye and absorbed in the cornea before the eye is exposed to a small amount of ultraviolet (UV) light. Together, the drops and UV light cause the collagen fibers in the cornea to crosslink or bond more tightly. This process strengthens the middle layer of tissue. It stabilizes the structure and halts any progressive vision loss.

The two corneal diseases that are treated with corneal cross-linking will be discussed in the text that follows. But, let’s first understand the function and structure of the cornea and the role it plays in vision.

Cross-Linking

The illustration on the left represents weakened collegen fibers that occur in keratoconus. The illustration on the right shows collegen fibers that have been strengthened with cornea cross-linking.

Function of the Cornea

The cornea is the clear covering or outermost layer of the eye. The cornea is often thought of as a windshield for the eyeball because it’s both