Severe long-term progressive corneal remodeling after bilateral simultaneous prophylactic crosslinking and topography-guided surface ablation with mitomycin

Abstract

To report a case of a 20-year-old woman who developed massive and progressive corneal remodeling in both eyes after bilateral PRK with mitomycin and CXL as an elective refractive procedure for mild keratoconus. The patient had 6 years of follow up, initially presenting with focal steepening of up to 20 diopters on both eyes one-and-a-half- years postoperatively that spontaneously reversed over the next five years while the high order aberrations worsened. At the present time, the patient depends on bilateral scleral contact lenses for her day-to-day activities. The use of combined elective PRK with mitomycin and prophylactic CXL could lead to progressive corneal deformation. Additional reports would help to establish the role of this combination procedure among the armamentarium to visually rehabilitate patients with keratoconus.

Keywords

• Keratoconus
• Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK)
• Mitomycin C (MMC)
• Corneal crosslinking (CXL)
• Corneal scarring
• Athens protocol