Definition of Keratoconus
Keratoconus is type of chronic degenerative diseases of the eye. It is a progressive disease that starts in adolescent years and progresses to mid twenties till thirties at which time it slows down and stabilized. During this period it can progress or arrest at any time.
It can progress slowly or quickly and there are no ways to predict that. This disease affects both eyes but in asymmetrical way in which one eye is severely affected than the other eye.
The word keratoconus means conical shaped cornea. Normally the cornea has regular spherical shape but in this condition, there will structural changes within the collagen of the cornea.
These changes will make the cornea thinner and because of intraocular pressure, the corneal surface will bulge anteriorly, causing conical shaped cornea.
This disease affects both eyes but in asymmetrical way in which one eye is severely affected than the other eye.
Causes of Keratoconus
There are no definite causes of this disease but there are different risk factors which can increase the incidence of it.
These factors can be genetic, environmental and cellular factors. These factors will cause changes in the enzymatic environment of the cornea in which there will be imbalance between several corneal enzymes that protect the cornea from free radicals and oxidation process. Read more about causes of Keratoconus.
Symptoms of Keratoconus
1- Normally with regular shaped cornea, the lights will be focused on a single point at the back of the eye but in patient with this disease and because of abnormal irregular conical shape of the cornea, the lights will be focused in several points at the back of the eye causing blurred vision with multiple images.
The refractive errors of patient with this condition will be myopia with irregular astigmatism. Read more about symptoms of Keratoconus
Keratoconus Treatment
Treatment of this condition will depend mainly on the severity of the it.
1- Patients with good vision at presentation should be treated with corneal collage cross-linking procedure with Riboflavin. This procedure with stabilize the cornea and prevent it from change its shape....Read more about treatments of keratoconus
