Abstract

Purpose:To report trends of keratoconus(KC) in patients presenting to multi-tier hospital network over 33 years.Methods:This retrospective study included KC patients presenting from 1987-2020. Patients with KC in atleast 1 eye were included.Descriptive statistics & chi square test were used for analysis.Results:20,576 KC cases were seen from 1987-2020.Mean age at diagnosis reduced from 29.3years(1987-1991)to 22.2years(2016-2020).Adults(76.64%) were commonly affected with majority being male(61.25%).Use of contact lenses(CL) increased from 4.34%(2002-2006) to 11.23%(2016-2020).Advances in lamellar surgery have led to more patients undergoing DALK as compared to PK.Trend towards earlier CXL was seen.In last 8 years,17.2% patients underwent surgery & most common was CXL(14.77%) followed by DALK(1.72%)& PK(1.04%).Conclusion:In last 30 years,advances in diagnostics have helped diagnose KC earlier.CL & advances in CXL have reduced the number of keratoplasties in KC, DALK being more common.

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