Cornea Transplant Surgery & Keratoconus Treatment in Ranchi, Jharkhand

What Is Cornea?

The cornea is the transparent, front window of the eye. it helps focus light into the eye so that you can see. the cornea is made of layers of cells. these layers work together to protect your eye and provide clear vision.

What is Cornea Transplantation ?

At Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital diseases of the Cornea are treated like:

Infectious Keratitis – Bacterial, fungal, Viral etc
Pterygium
Conjunctivitis -Infective/ Allergic
Keratoconus, Pellucid Marginal degeneration
Dry eye
Post surgical Corneal edema
Corneal Decompensation
Corneal trauma
Corneal Dystrophies
Chemical injuries
Corneal Foreign bodies
Corneal Perforations
Corneal Tattooing

Treatments Available

LASIK
ICL Surgery
Collagen crosslinking
Cornea Transplantation
Limbal Stem Cell Transplantation
Dry Eye Treatment

Keratoconus

What is keratoconus ?

Keratoconus is when the cornea thins out and bulges like a cone. Changing the shape of the cornea brings light rays out of focus. As a result, your vision is blurry and distorted, making daily tasks like reading or driving difficult.

Left: normal cornea; right: cornea with keratoconus

What are risk factors for keratoconus ?

In some cases, it appears to be genetic (passed down in families).
Keratoconus is also associated with:

How to prevent keratoconus ?

No preventive strategy has been proven effective to date.

Some feel that eye rubbing or pressure can cause and/or lead to the progression of keratoconus. Patients should not rub their eyes.

In some patients, avoidance of allergens and treatment of ocular surface disease may help decrease eye irritation and therefore decrease eye rubbing.

Keratoconus Symptoms

Keratoconus often starts when people are in their late teens to early 20s. The vision symptoms slowly get worse over a period of about 10 to 20 years.

Keratoconus often affects both eyes, and can lead to very different vision between the two eyes. Symptoms can differ in each eye, and they can change over time.

In the early stage, Keratoconus symptoms can include:

Frequent change of glasses
Increase in cylinder power
Mild blurring of vision
Shadow formation
Slightly distorted vision, where straight lines look bent or wavy
Increased sensitivity to light and glare
Eye redness or swelling

In later stages, keratoconus symptoms often include:

Increase in blurriness and distorted vision
Increased near-sightedness or astigmatism
Not being able to wear contact lenses.
They may no longer fit properly and they are uncomfortable.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis can be made by slit-lamp examination and certain investigations.

Corneal topography
Pentacam
Anterior segment OCT
Pachymetry

How Is Keratoconus Treated ?

Keratoconus treatment depends on the symptoms and stage of disease.

Spectacles correction
Contact lens – Soft, Hard or custom made
CORNEA COLLAGEN CROSS-LINKING (C3R)
This is a FDA approved treatment to stop the progression of Keratoconus.
It is based on collagen cross-linking with ultra-violet A (UVA, 365 nm) and Riboflavin (vitamin B2, a photo sensitizing agent).
It changes the intrinsic biomechanical property of the cornea, increasing its strength by almost 300%.
This increase in corneal strength has shown to arrest the progression of Keratoconus.
Stiffening of Cornea prevents it from bulging further.
INTACS

These are two small curved devices that are surgically put in the cornea. Intacs help flatten the curvature of the cornea to improve vision.
CORNEAL TRANSPLANT

When keratoconus has advanced to a stage where the abovementioned treatments cannot work, a cornea transplant may be required in which the part of diseased bulging cornea is replaced with a healthy donor corneal tissue.

ICL FOR HIGH MYOPIA

The Implantable Contact Lens is a very thin, foldable lens, which is inserted into the eye through a tiny suture less corneal incision.
Each ICL is specially designed and custom-made to fit the patient's own unique anatomy.
It lies behind the iris and in front of the lens, without touching the central lens.
The ICL is reversible and can correct near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism and is done mainly in those patients who cannot undergo LASIK treatment.

CHEMICAL INJURIES

Chemical (alkali and acid) injury of the conjunctiva and cornea is a true ocular emergency and requires immediate intervention.

Chemical injuries to the eye can produce extensive damage to the ocular surface and anterior segment leading to visual impairment and disfigurement.

Early recognition and treatment ensure the best possible outcome for this potentially blinding condition.

PTERYGIUM

What is Pterygium?

It is fleshy growth over the cornea which can occur from either side but is most commonly from the side of the nose.

Why does Pterygium occur?

Due to exposure to sunlight UV Rays, dry and dusty environment.

What can be the signs of having Pterygium?

Growth of mass in the eye
Redness
Irritation
Dryness
Blurry vision

What are treatment options for Pterygium?

Drops to lubricate your eyes can help relieve irritation
When pterygium becomes large then removal by surgery is the only option
Excision with conjunctival autograft is considered the current gold standard because of its low rate of recurrence.