The cornea is your eye’s clear, front, protective outer layer of the eye. Along with the sclera (the white of your eye), it serves as a barrier against dirt, germs, and other things that can cause damage. It also plays a key role in vision. As light enters your eye, it gets refracted, or bent, by the cornea’s curved edge. This helps determine how well your eye can focus on objects close-up and far away.
Corneal curvature and its clarity are the two factors which lead to clear vision in your eye.
Corneal Disorders
Any reason which leads to loss of clarity of cornea or distortion of its shape can lead to loss in vision. These include infections, tissue breakdown, and other genetic disorders you get from your parents.
Common disorders of cornea are:
-
Corneal ulcers- It can be bacterial, fungal or viral.
-
Corneal injuries or trauma.
-
Corneal Dystrophies like Fuch’s Dystrophy, Lattice Dystrophy etc.
-
Corneal Degenerations like Keratoconus.
-
Allergies
Symptoms of Corneal disorder
-
Intense eye pain
-
Change in vision
-
Blurry vision
-
Very red, watery eye.
You should visit an ophthalmologist if you have any of the above symptoms or if any object stuck in your eye or any chemical splashing in your eye or a serious eye injury or trauma — like getting hit hard in the eye.
Treatment of Corneal disorders
Dr Sonia Sharma at MeeraSight is experienced in treating all corneal disorders and is among very few surgeons who are trained in all advanced corneal procedures during her fellowship at different prestigious institutes.
Many corneal conditions can be treated medically with prescription eye drops or pills. If you have advanced corneal disease, you may need a different treatment such as:-
Corneal transplant surgery: If the damage to your cornea can’t be repaired, doctors can remove the damaged part and replace it with healthy corneal tissue from a donor. It can be a full thickness transplant or a partial thickness/Lamellar transplant (DALK, ALTK, DSAEK/ DMEK).
Laser treatment: To treat some corneal dystrophies and other conditions, doctors can use a type of laser treatment called phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) to reshape the cornea, remove scar tissue, and make vision clearer.
Artificial cornea: As an alternative to corneal transplant, doctors can replace a damaged cornea with an artificial cornea, called a keratoprosthesis (KPro).