SAFETY OF UV CROSSLINKING OF THE SCLERA IN EXPERIMENT <i>IN VIVO</i>
Objective: to assess the safety of the ultraviolet scrleral crosslinking by optical coherence tomography in the experiment in vivo. Materials and methods. The study was performed on 34 Chinchilla rabbits (68 eyes) in vivo. On the right eyes the scleral crosslinking procedure with riboflavin/ultraviolet A was performed, the left ones served as a control. The procedure of crosslinking was carried out as follows: the sclera was saturated with a photosensitizer by instillation of a 0.1% aqueous solution of riboflavin mononucleotide for 20 minutes; then the sclera was irradiated with ultraviolet A (wavelength 370 ± 5 nm, radiation power 3 mW/cm2) for 6 cycles of 5 minutes (total irradiation time - 30 minutes). The photosensitizer solution (2-3 drops) was additionally instilled between the cycles. The state of the layers of the eyeball was assessed using high-resolution optical coherence tomography before ultraviolet crosslinking, in 1 day, week and month after the surgery. Results. Optical coherence tomography did not reveal any pathological changes after the ultraviolet crosslinking of the sclera. The images clearly visualized the layers of the retina, the choroid and the sclera. The performed morphometric analysis did not show statistically significant differences in the thickness of the eye layers between the groups. Conclusion. Ultraviolet scleral crosslinking (irradiation with a power of 3 mW/cm2 for 30 minutes with a preliminary saturation of the sclera with 0.1% aqueous solution of riboflavin) is safe for the eye layers in the experiment in vivo according to optical coherence tomography (1 figure, 3 tables, bibliography: 6 refs).