At what point of Keratoconus should you get T-PRK + CXL?...Share experiences - www.KCFreedom.org

allrounder · Member

At what point of Keratoconus should you get T-PRK + CXL?...Share experiences

Remo · Executive

Its a personal choice IF you are found to be a candidate. To be a candidate you must have enough corneal tissue (and be contact lens intolerant).

Other treatments may be discussed and ruled out, in favor of Limited Topo PRK

For a well proven method of Crosslinking (which gets used in combination with any number of corneal corrective surgeries), a minimum of 400 micros is needed.

50 microns (via laser PRK correction) can be removed safely in KC when combined with cross-lining.

This means a corneal thickness of 450 would be required at the out set.

Some clinics use various protocols around the 450 mark, to be able to treat lower than this, but its on case by case merit.

Like with many corrective surgery, the smaller, the less complex the prescription, the better chance of a good out come. Moderate cases out come may be to be able to wear glasses or more normal soft lenses, which would be a good result, when this was not possible before.

allrounder · Member

Im actually getting cross linking next month.

I was just curious about the procedure.

Ive got a mild case of keratoconus in both eyes . Right eye is worst though.

I got halos in both eyes but worse in my right. Bloody hell the halos are ****ing annoying.
hopefully the contacts i get help with the halos.

Can t-prk help with halos?

can i get t-prk after cross-linking ?

Thanks for the reply

Remo · Executive

Mild KC is easier to treat with many options. Halos can be influenced by how large the pupils are, as well as how irregular your cornea is. The out come of night vision (where halos are even more pronounced due to the pupil getting smaller) will be assessed at the screening for Laser if the halo effects can be reduced and eliminated depending on your corneal readings.

If you do CXL first and then PRK, it could be advisable to do a CXL treatment afterwards as well, or wait and see if there is progression, but check this regularly anyway.

Best of luck

GRS · Optometrist

Of course we know that the goal of CXL is to increase the strength of the cornea to resist further ectasia. But the PRK removes tissue, and so works in the opposite direction against the CXL. Does anybody know the long term effects of having PRK after CXL and how many times it will need to be repeated? Can it be repeated?

There are other non-invasive ways of reducing or eliminating night vision halos with contact lenses.