Corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL or C3R) is a technique that has been developed over the past 15 years to strengthen the cornea, which is the clear window at the front of the eye. This is important in progressive keratoconus or corneal ectasia where there is continued deformation of the corneal shape and progressive vision loss.
Crosslinking working by increasing the bonds (cross linking) between the collagen fibres in the cornea. Studies have shown that CXL is successful at stabilising progressive keratoconus in over 90% cases.