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Table 5 Risk differences for the adverse effects and treatment failures in randomized clinical trials assessing corneal collagen cross-linking (epi-on vs. epi-off)

From: Corneal collagen cross-linking epithelium-on vs. epithelium-off: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Adverse effect

RD

95% CI

P

Keratoconus progression

− 0.025

− 0.059 – 0.008

0.141

Delay in epithelial healing

0.049

0.0030 – 0.0946

0.035*

Persistent stromal haze

0.0525

0.0063 – 0.0986

0.026*

Sterile infiltrates

0.0036

− 0.0206 – 0.0279

0.768

Infection

0.0036

− 0.0206 – 0.0279

0.768

  1. CI confidence interval; RD risk difference
  2. If the value of the summary effect is negative, epi-on corneal collagen cross-linking would have more risk of adverse effects. Otherwise, epi-off would have this condition. All the results were obtained through fixed-effects models due to the lack of heterogeneity
  3. *Indicates statistical significance