الفهرس 
1. Introduction and Aim of the Work.Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Keratoconus is a progressive disorder associated with structural changes in corneal collagen organization.
Patients tend to develop progressive corneal thinning that can lead to visual impairment due to progressive myopia and astigmatism. While keratoconus in
adults has been studied extensively, the disease in the pediatric population has not.
Pediatric keratoconus is more aggressive than adult keratoconus. Visual impairment in pediatric patients may affect social and educational development, thus negatively impacting their quality of life.
Due to the success of corneal cross-linking in adult keratoconus patients,
It has recently been studied as therapy to slow progression in pediatric keratoconus.
Most studies in the literature report the standard epithelium-off cross-linking protocol for pediatric keratoconus, but there are other non-standard techniques used in children include trans-epithelial cross-linking and accelerated cross-linking .
Safety,efficacy, improvement in uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and significant flattening in K readings
have been reported after cross linking in pediatric patients with keratoconus.
Our study, included 50 eyes of 25 pediatric patients (aging less than 18 years old) diagnosed as keratoconus and were candidates for accelerated transepithelial cross linking. Follow up lasted for 6months postoperative.
Our results showed significant improvement in UCVA and BCVA with stabilization of corneal parameters as keratometric readings and corneal thickness of thinnest location, these results observed in all cases except for one case showed progression and prepared for re-cxl.
Conclusion
Although the current study was limited in terms of follow-up and number of patients, it confirms that Corneal collagen crosslinking are safe and effective procedures in treatment and halting the progression of keratoconus in pediatric patients.
Randomized controlled studies with a larger number of patients and longer follow-up are required to confirm the long-term efficacy of CXL in pediatric keratoconus.