Table 1.

Summary of baseline visit visual acuity data and ulcer size, epithelization times in both treatment groups, and mean follow-up time and visual acuities at discharge visit

Baseline visit	Medication group (n = 21)	PACK-CXL group (n = 18)	P-value
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Ulcer size (mm)	2.33 (0.87)	2.75 (1.07)	0.1564
UCVA (logMAR)	1.15 (1.03)	1.24 (0.90)	0.494
CDVA (logMAR)	0.73 (0.85)	0.76 (0.66)	0.453

Epithelization time (days)	Medication group (n = 19)	PACK-CXL group (n = 16)	P-value
Median	7	7	0.828
Q75%	20.5	10
Q90%	37	19.6
Maximum	50	28
Mean (SD)	14.58 (14.95)	9.94 (7.18)

Epithelization time difference between both groups
Difference (PACK-CXL-med)	− 4.64
Pooled SD	12.06
Error margin	8.02
CI (95%)	(− 12.66, 3.38)

Discharge visit	Medication group (n = 19)	PACK-CXL group (n = 16)	P-value
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Therapy/follow-up duration (days)	29.42 (12.60)	22.56 (3.82)
UCVA (logMAR)	1.00 (1.06)	0.79 (0.68)	0.96
CDVA (logMAR)	0.54 (0.75)	0.53 (0.68)	0.96

UCVA uncorrected visual acuity; CDVA corrected distance visual acuity; logMAR logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution; med medication group, PACK-CXL photoactivated chromophore corneal cross-linking; SD standard deviation; CI confidence interval