Blurring Strength & Aberrometric Changes Following Corneal Cross-linking (CxL) and CXL Combined With Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) in Keratoconus.

The Pentacam Classic (Oculus Optikgerate GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany, software version 1.14r04) was used for the sake of the study.32 patients with keratoconus were included in the study. Of them, 19 patients underwent CxL treatment (CxL group), while the rest 13 patients underwent CxL combined with t-PRK (tCxL) [tCxL group]. If both eyes were eligible, only one eye was enrolled in the study.Regarding Scheimpflug camera (Pentacam Classic, Oculus Optikgerate GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany, software version 1.14r04 ) measurements, acceptable maps had at least 10.0mm of corneal coverage. Moreover, images with extrapolated data in the central 9.0mm zone were excluded.

For both anterior and posterior corneal surfaces, Pentacam-derived HOAs parameters for both pupil diameters of 4mm and 6mm were calculated, as well as the HOA root mean square (RMS)values. Pentacam-derived HOA measurements were obtained one day prior to treatment and then one year post-op.The impact of the surgical technique (either CXL or tCXL) on spherocylindrical error was evaluated by power vector analysis as described before. Furthermore, manifest refractions comprising of sphere (S), cylinder (C) and axis (φ), were converted into three dioptric powers (M, J0 and J45). Moreover, we calculated the overall blurring strength (B) of the spherocylindrical error by measuring the length of the produced vector.