Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease in which the normally round cornea thins and begins to bulge into a cone-like shape. This cone shape deflects light as it enters the eye on its way to the light-sensitive retina, causing distorted vision.
Keratoconus can occur in one or both eyes and often begins during a person’s teens or early 20s.
As the cornea becomes more irregular in shape, it causes progressive nearsightedness and irregular astigmatism to develop, creating additional problems with distorted and blurred vision. Glare and light sensitivity also may occur.
What Causes Keratoconus?
New research suggests the weakening of the corneal tissue that leads to keratoconus may be due to an imbalance of enzymes within the cornea Risk factors for oxidative damage and weakening of the cornea include a genetic predisposition, explaining why keratoconus often affects more than one member of the same family.
Keratoconus also is associated with overexposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun, excessive eye rubbing, a history of poorly fitted contact lenses and chronic eye irritation.
Keratoconus Treatment
In the mildest form of keratoconus, eyeglasses or soft contact lenses may help. But as the disease progresses and the cornea thins and becomes increasingly more irregular in shape, glasses and regular soft contact lens designs no longer provide adequate vision correction. Such patients may need gas permeable lenses (GPs) or specializes lenses.
Treatments for moderate and advanced keratoconus include:
Intacs: These surgically applied corneal inserts manufactured by Addition Technology received.
Corneal cross linking: This procedure, often called CXL for short, strengthens corneal tissue to halt bulging of the eye’s surface in keratoconus.
There are two versions of corneal cross linking: epithelium-off and epithelium-on.
With epithelium-off cross linking, the outer portion of the cornea (epithelium) is removed to allow entry of riboflavin, a type of B vitamin, into the cornea, which then is activated with UV light.
Corneal cross linking may reduce significantly the need for corneal transplants among keratoconus patients.
Corneal transplant: Some people with keratoconus can’t tolerate a rigid contact lens, or they reach the point where contact lenses or other therapies no longer provide acceptable vision.
The last remedy to be considered may be a cornea transplant, also called a penetrating keratoplasty (PK or PKP). Even after a transplant, you most likely will need glasses or contact lenses for clear vision