Keratoconus: Causes, Different Stages,Treatments and Cost

Detailed, Keratoconus is an irregularity(thinner, dome-shaped) in the shape/structure of the cornea(outermost layer of our eye); as in Keratoconus cornea is not in its natural shape hence deflects the light that enters through it therefore proper, the Image does not form on the retina due to this the person having Keratoconus see a blurred vision which may vary with the age and growth of the eye.

Let’s understand Keratoconus with an eye diagram.m

What are the Different Stages of Keratoconus?

1. First Stage– Sudden weakening of eyesight is its first sign; at this stage, you think of it as normal and vision is corrected with glass, but if the checkup is not proper, then it becomes more and more in the future.

2. Second Stage– Blur in eyesight.

3. Third Stage– After blurring in vision, the stage comes when you cannot get a proper Image with glasses from local optical. This is when everybody goes for higher treatment and learns about their eye problem.

What are the causes of the Keratoconus?

1. It’s a kind of enzyme degradation of the corneal fibres. The collagen fibres of the cornea get degraded, and that causes them to thin and weaken.

2. Keratoconus is due to the weakening in the eye fibre named “collagen”, which is vital to hold the cornea.

3. Keratoconus runs in families, meaning if you have a Keratoconus, it might be passed on to the next generation. So it is better to have an eye checkup with your family.

Pro-tip for everybody who has Keratoconus or somebody who has terrible allergies the eyes are eye rubbing; so you’ve probably heard at some point the doctor says you don’t rub on the eye hard, and the whole idea is that when you rub a hard-on your eye, you cause kind of like these micro damages to the collagen fibres of the eye. When you cause cornea damage, those enzymes try to repair the damaged tissue, and they end up causing it to get worse.

So, people who rub their eyes badly and they have Keratoconus; may cause Keratoconus to advance even faster, so yeah, if you’ve got Keratoconus, try to do your best to stop rubbing your eye if you have bad allergies or something like that, talk to your doctor about your allergy so you can get you on oral medications or eyedrops or something that you can do to help control the itching and irritation.

 

 

Corneal Cross-Linking

 

One is going to be called corneal cross-linking(C3R), so corneal cross-linking was approved in the United States in 2016. It has been out much longer in Europe, Europe, and Canada, but it’s a process where they use riboflavin which is Vitamin b2. Then they use ultraviolet light (UV) to activate some cells on the eye’s surface and get them to strengthen.

This is a revolutionary treatment, especially for Keratoconus, because Keratoconus is a progressive disease that worsens over time. Still, with corneal cross-linking, you can stop it or at least slow it down from getting worse, so this is the first thing that comes to mind of most ophthalmologists.

Corneal cross-linking is done by a corneal specialist. This is your ophthalmologist there’s you know every state usually has a couple of them.

How does this process of corneal cross-linking work?

They put riboflavin the vitamin b2. It’s a specific mixture. It’s not just pure riboflavin. It’s a medication that’s put on the eye. Then they shine the UV light on it, which causes the collagen fibres to stiffen and strengthen, which has been just proven over the last couple of years to help people with Keratoconus.

In this, a plastic ring that’s put into the cornea and that causes the cornea to plateau out smooths out the cone of the surface of the eye, and that’s really to help reduce advancing problems with myopia or nearsightedness as well as bad astigmatism because again you’re into the moderate and severe stages of Keratoconus your astigmatism is so irregular that it causes problems with your vision. It’s challenging to get correction with glasses and contacts if inter corneal ring segments.

3.  Soft and Hard Contact Lenses(RGP Lenses)

Another promising treatment for you, your surgeon, and your eye care professional will talk about that option is getting more into people who have mild Keratoconus; if you have mild or moderate Keratoconus, the standard treatment is actually with glasses and contacts.

The soft contact lens is for people with mild Keratoconus, so you can still wear soft lenses and see very well.

Another one is hard rigid gas permeable or our GP lens; our GP lenses work great because they mask a lot of the distortions of the eye’s surface from the Keratoconus; there’s a speciality kind of rigid lenses.

 

Hospital Name	City/State	Address	Phone Number
Spectra Eye Care Hospital	New Delhi	E-82-A, Greater Kailash-1, New Delhi, 110048	081309 29913
Max Hospital, Saket	New Delhi	Press Enclave Marg, Saket Institutional Area, Saket, New Delhi, Delhi 110017	011 2651 5050
Fortis Memorial Research Institute	Haryana	Sector-44, Opposite HUDA City Centre, Gurugram, 122002	0124 716 2200
BLK Super Specialty Hospital	New Delhi	Pusa Rd, Radha Soami Salsang, Rajendra Place, 11005	011 3040 3040
Centre  For Sight Eye Institute	New Delhi	Plot No.9, Dwarka Sector 9, 110075	011 4250 4250
PGIMER	Chandigarh	Madhya Marg, Sector-12, 160012	0172 274 7585

• Narayana Super Specialty Hospital.

• Global Group of Hospital.

• Artemis Specialty Hospital.

• Apollo Spectra Hospital.

• Global Group of Hospital.

• BLK Super Specialty Hospital.

• Max Super Specialty Hospital.

• Nanavati Super Specialty Hospital.

• Jaslok Specialty Hospital.

 

Keratoconus: C3R surgery cost- United States