Keratoconus - The Basics

Find out more Information about Keratoconus, an eye condition that is found in between 1 in 500 and 1 in 2000 people worldwide

What is Keratoconus?

Keratoconus is a condition affecting the cornea of the eye.

Normal Eye

The cornea is the clear front part of the eye. If you think of the cornea like a window through which the light from the outside world enters your eye. The lens, which is what actually focuses light onto the Retina at the back of your eye, is located behind the Cornea. Here, in the Retina, is where the light is translated in nerve signals that you brain interprets as vision. In an eye without Keratoconus there is a smooth and even round shape to the Cornea. The light passes through evenly onto the lens.

Keratoconus Eye

In an eye with Keratoconus, the cornea thins and bulges out into an irregular cone shape. The light coming through is distorted the lens cannot focus it properly and vision is affected. Keratoconus comes from Kerato (meaning horn and referring to the cornea) and Conus (meaning cone) so the name translates as coning of the cornea. In fact the distortion of the cornea is not really cone shaped, it's much less regular. It is the irregular shape that makes the vision so hard to correct.

What causes Keratoconus?

The simple answer is that no one is sure. There is some evidence of a genetic component because sometimes it seems to run in families. To be fair though, in some cases there is no family connection. Rubbing your eyes too much can worsen the condition, and may even be one of the causes of getting it in the first place. One factor may be issues resulting from poorly fitting contact lenses. But there is a lack of consensus. Experts disagree on how rare the condition actually is. Numbers range from 1 in 500 to 1 in 2000. You can see that it's not massively rare, but it's also far from commonplace.

How bad does Keratoconus get?

The condition is often present in both eyes, but it is also possible that you may only have it it one eye. In a lot of cases one eye will be more impacted than the other. If you have Keratoconus you may find that the disease never progresses beyond the mild stage where you have no real problems seeing at all, on the other hand a small number of people will experience a severe progressin which can lead to very poor vision. Typical issues found by people with Keratoconus are:

"Ghosting" which is blurry double or treble images mostly seen when you bright lights against a dark background, this can make night vision poor and have an impact on night driving

Sensitivity to light

Blurred vision

Eye strain

Itching

In more advanced cases, your cornea may become scarred.

In the worst cases, you can get a localised rupture of the cornea called corneal Hydrops.

It's not all bad news however. Of the people that are diagnosed with Keratoconus the overwhelming majority do not experience any major vision problems. For those that do there are a wide variety of treatment options ranging from soft contact lenses through to hard lenses, plastic implants and even cornral surgery.

If it's caught early there are even some treatments where the progress of the condition can be slowed, or even halted altogether

by: Ralph Goldsmith

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