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Crosslinking in Children and Teenagers

Recent articles have analyzed cornea crosslinking (CXL) in the pediatric population. When the procedure was first described fourteen years ago, the treatment was reserved for adults with progressive keratoconus. After CXL was found to be safe and effective, doctors questioned if the procedure could also help teenagers with keratoconus and began to treat this population. The authors caution that CXL is performed to stabilize the cornea, rather than to improve vision or flatten the cornea permanently. By that metric, the procedure is successful, although it appears that in some cases, keratoconus will progress after a period of stability.