What is corneal cross-linking?

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?Is keratoconus curable

This depends upon the stage of disease at the time of initiating the treatment. Spectacles, hard contact lenses, and intacs all can be helpful at early stages of the disease. When the cornea becomes too thin or non-transparent, then only corneal transplantation is beneficial. However, the latest method for treating it is CXR or C3R. With this technique, it has become quite possible to treat the cause of the disease.

?What is done in cross-linking operation? It is how much effective

Cornea is made up of collagen. This is a protein found in form of fibers. The fibers form a network which acts as infrastructure of the cornea. In the patients with keratoconus, the cross-links between these fibers of the network become week. When the cross-links weeken, the threads separate and in-between distance increase. This the mesh weakens and the cornea becomes thinner. The corneal globe enlarges.

In this method of corneal cross-linking, the collagen fibers are activated with a dye named Riboflavin. Then the activated fibers are treated with a special type of ultra-violet ray. This results into strengthening of the cross-links. As a result the fibers come closer to each other again and the thickness of the cornea increases again.

Since this drug and UV emitting device are both expensive at this time, so the treatment is yet expensive.

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