There is currently no cure for keratoconus. Nothing can restore the cornea to its original shape. All therapeutic approaches aim to stabilize the disease and limit its impact on visual function and the daily life of patients.

Only early diagnosis, enabled by regular ophthalmologic monitoring, can ensure optimal management. If the diagnosis of keratoconus is made in a subject under the age of 18 or if it evolves rapidly, an ophthalmologist may suggest carrying out a corneal cross-linking. This is the only treatment capable of slowing the development of keratoconus.

What is cross linking?

Cross-linking is an intervention which will make it possible to stiffen the collagen proteins of the cornea and thus slow down the deformation of this eye condition. The intervention is, as a rule, painless; it is performed under only local anesthesia, on an outpatient basis. The two eyes are not operated on at the same time.

How to improve the vision of a patient with keratoconus?

Different measures are available to try to correct the vision of the affected patient, depending on the degree of severity of the keratoconus. These include:

• The optical correction by wearing glasses will allow, at the early stage, to correct the myopic astigmatism induced by the bulging of the cornea.
• When the astigmatism is too advanced, the glasses are generally no longer sufficient and an adaptation in lenses is necessary. In case of keratoconus, only rigid lenses permeable to gases, of specific geometry can be adapted. On the one hand, they are the only lenses that can remain stable on an irregular cornea. On the other hand, their rigidity allows them to create, via a meniscus of tears, a more regular ocular surface, which will then attenuate the excessive deflection of the light rays.
• The adaptation in rigid lenses of the subject suffering from keratoconus is a specialized medical act, which will require several tests and consultations with an ophthalmologist.
• In some cases, the placement of intra-corneal rings, surgically inserted into the cornea, makes it possible to control all or part of its deformation.
• When opacities complicate the evolution of keratoconus, the light can no longer pass through the cornea. Visual acuity then drops significantly and the correction devices described above are no longer sufficient to improve it. Only a cornea transplant, which replaces the diseased cornea with a healthy donor cornea, will restore the transparency of the ocular environments. This is a major intervention, which requires long-term anti-rejection treatments, but which makes it possible to restore sight in the most severe cases.

Learn more about keratoconus treatment in San Antonio, Texas at the Contact Lens Institute.