Keratoconus

What is keratoconus?

Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease in which the normally round cornea starts to thin and bulge into a cone-like shape. This cone shape deflects light as it enters the eye on its way to the retina, causing distorted and blurred vision. As the condition worsens and the cornea becomes more irregular in shape, it causes progressive nearsightedness and irregular astigmatism to develop, creating additional vision problems. Light sensitivity can also occur.

Keratoconus treatment:

As keratoconus progresses, and the cornea becomes more irregular in shape, glasses or regular contact lenses no longer provide adequate vision correction.

There are a number of special hard contact lenses and surgical options available to help treat keratoconus. Since keratoconus can vary widely from patient to patient, the recommendation of any treatment or procedure depends on the individual problem and symptoms. Surgical options include Intacs implants, which help reshape the cornea, and corneal cross-linking (CXL), which helps to flatten or stiffen the cornea, keeping it from bulging further.