Keratoconus
Keratoconus is a degenerative disease of the cornea that causes it to gradually thin and bulk in the corneal shape, leaving to a distorted image. As the disease progresses nearsightedness and astigmatism increase, causing vision to become more blurry and distorted and it can’t be corrected with glasses.
Currently there are treatments to prevent progression and improve vision in keratoconus.
There are several treatments such as crosslinking, ring implantation, and corneal transplantation.
In eyes with important vision problems from keratoconus there are several alternatives for treatment:
- Implant of corneal rings
- Corneal transplant surgey
According to the stage of the disease we can make different surgeries to prevent progression of keratoconus and improve the quality of vision.
Toric lenses: Allows correction of astigmatism.
CXL: Prevents progression, in majority of the patients flattens the cornea, improving vision.
ICRS: flattens the cornea, reducing the irregularity, myopia and astigmatism, can be an alternative in not very advanced cases
Intraocular lens implantation: To correct high myopia and astigmatism
Topography-guided PRK: Decrease the myopia and astigmatism and reduce irregularities of the cornea, improving the visual quality
Corneal transplantation: For very advanced cases, where all the above treatments are discarded. The first election corneal transplant technique to treat advanced keratoconus is Deep anterior lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK), which is a partial transplantation of the cornea, where it removes only the diseased part and spare the posterior layer of the cornea of the patient, reducing the possibility of complications, especially the risk of graft rejection.