Keratoconus—Corneal Disorders

Your cornea is the outermost layer of your eye. It is clear and shaped like a dome. The cornea helps to shield the rest of the eye from germs, dust, and other harmful matter. It also helps your eye to focus. If you wear contact lenses, they float on top of your corneas.

Problems with the cornea include

• Refractive errors
• Allergies
• Infections
• Injuries
• Dystrophies – conditions in which parts of the cornea lose clarity due to a buildup of cloudy material

Treatments of corneal disorders include medicines, corneal transplantation, and corneal laser surgery.

NIH: National Eye Institute

• Cloudy cornea (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Corneal injury (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Corneal transplant (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Corneal ulcers and infections (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Fuchs dystrophy (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Keratoconus (Medical Encyclopedia)

Keratoconus is an eye condition that affects the shape of the cornea, which is the clear outer covering of the eye. In this condition, the cornea thins and bulges outward, eventually resembling a cone shape. These corneal abnormalities, which worsen over time, can lead to nearsightedness (myopia), blurred vision that cannot be improved with corrective lenses (irregular astigmatism), and vision loss.Other corneal changes typical of keratoconus that can be seen during an eye exam include iron deposits in the cornea that form a yellow-to-brownish ring, called the Fleischer ring, surrounding the colored part of the eye (iris). Affected individuals may also develop Vogt’s striae, which are thin, vertical, white lines in the tissue at the back of the cornea.Keratoconus may affect only one eye at first, but eventually the corneas of both eyes become misshapen, although they might not be affected with the same severity. As keratoconus worsens, people with this condition can develop corneal scarring, often caused by exposure of the abnormally thin cornea to prolonged contact lens use or excessive eye rubbing.The eye changes characteristic of keratoconus typically begin in adolescence and slowly worsen until mid-adulthood at which point the shape of the cornea remains stable.