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Acute mechanical effect of riboflavin corneal cross‐linking
Author(s) -
PENNOS A,
KARYOTAKIS N,
KONTADAKIS G,
PENTARI IG,
PALLIKARIS IG,
GINIS HS
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2010.4336.x
Subject(s) - trephine , corneal collagen cross linking , irradiation , corneal epithelium , ophthalmology , significant difference , materials science , chemistry , cornea , biomedical engineering , anatomy , surgery , keratoconus , medicine , physics , nuclear physics
Purpose To study the acute mechanical effect of corneal cross‐linking in vitro. Methods Twenty porcine eyes were harvested from a local abattoire. The epithelium was removed using a rotating brush and corneal buttons having diameter of 8 mm were excised using a Barron’s PKP trephine. The buttons were left immersed for four hours in Dextran solution (20%W/V) in order to regulate their hydration. The buttons were immersed in riboflafin 0.1% in dextran 20% and separated in two groups (10 buttons each) where one group was irradiated for 30 minutes with UV light while the other group was not irradiated and served as control. After treatment mechanical measurements were performed by means of a purposely‐developed device featuring a stepping motor and a load cell. The motor shaft has a spherical tip that compresses the corneal button against a flat surface mounted on the load cell. The slope of force versus normalized deformation was recorded for each specimen. Results The control group had an average slope of 3.55 (± 1.81) while the irradiated group had 4.47 (±1.80). This difference was not statistically significant. (p=0.27) Conclusion This compressibility test did not reveal statistically significant changes between the two groups immediately after UV corneal cross‐linking. It remains to be elucidated whether different tests (e.g. elongation) may yield different results.