Keratoconus is present in ~1.2% of people in developed countries and up to ~7% in developing countries

Prevalence Of Keratoconus Based On Scheimpflug Imaging

the Raine Study

• 1.2% in 20 Year Olds (1:84)
• “…Important implications for screening … at a younger age so that treatment can be initiated before disease progression.”-ophthalmology, 2021

Malpractice suits have increased for failure to Diagnosis and promptly refer (e.g. progressive keratoconus) with this new information.
Suits on behalf of younger pts are much more likely to find against the doctor and result in larger Awards.

FALSE. CXL CAN be performed by leaving the protective corneal epithelium intact (Epithelium-On) or surgically removing or disrupting the epithelium (Epithelium-Off).

From peer-reviewed publications and presentations.

In our clinical trials the majority of patients were treated with bilateral simultaneous EpiSmart® and most patients returned to normal activities the next day.

FALSE. Dozens of Epithelium-On CXL systems have been found to NOT work effectively in extensive meta-analyses of over 1000 published papers and reviews.

In the world’s peer-review literature, only one Epithelium-On protocol has been shown in large clinical trials to work in stopping KCN worsening and improving vision. This investigational Epithelium-On CXL system has been extensively studied in labs and clinical trials for years.

This Epithelium-On CXL was selected as one of the five “Hot Topics presentations at the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Annual Meeting and was reported in Eyeworld direct from the meeting as well as The National Keratoconus Foundation’s Newsletter Publication of the results of this study of 2,228 subjects treated with this Epithelium-On system was published in the Journal Cornea in July 2023. This research has received extensive attention recently in cover stories.

TRUE. Patients who have already had loss of quality of vision from KCN could read the letter on the right but see multiple images, glare, and ghost images. Even patients with early KCN who have not yet lost quality or quantity of vision can see clearly like the image on the left before they start to lose sight.

TRUE.

It used to be thought that patients couldn’t lose vision from keratoconus after 40 (or 50 or 60) years of age because they would be “stable”. This has now been shown to be a persistent myth. We often see patients whose doctors told them they were “stable” rapidly lose vision even in their 60s.