Research advances of corneal collagen cross-linking in the treatment of corneal diseases

Corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) has been proved to be a very safe and effective technique to halt the progression of many cornea diseases, such as ectasia disease, infectious keratitis and ametropia.CXL techniques include conventional CXL, accelerated CXL, transepithelial CXL and photochemical CXL.CXL can prevent the progression of dilated keratopathy, postpone or avoid corneal transplant surgery, and has an auxiliary function in the treatment of bullous keratopathy, infectious keratitis except herpes virus infection, and ametropia.CXL is not effective for patients with ocular herpes virus infection and patients with thin cornea and may even worsen the development of the disease.This review summarized the advantages and disadvantages of common CXL techniques, indications, contraindications, and complications, which may help enhancing the clinical application of CXL and reducing its complications.