As corneal collagen crosslinking with LASIK remains a relatively new addition to the basic procedure, there are still some unknowns about the procedure. As such, practices may vary between different doctors who offer this procedure.
What we know about the procedure is that it increases corneal rigidity by up to 130%. We also know it can help to increase post LASIK stability of spectacle power. However, it is less clear who will benefit the most from having this extra treatment.
My feeling is that, since there are still unanswered questions about this procedure, it should pretty much always be an optional additional procedure, for now.
Having said that, in general, this additional step may be particularly beneficial for patients who will end up with post LASIK thin corneas around 330 microns or less, and patients undergoing high myopia treatments above -7D or who have high astigmatism.
Please note, these are just my personal guidelines and may differ from other doctor’s practices. Even with these guidelines, I leave the final decision of whether to have the additional procedure to patients, pending more definitive studies in the future.
