What Is Keratoconus?

The cornea of the eye is designed to be rigid and strong. And for most people, this remains the case their entire life. But not everyone. For some, the cornea becomes weak and changes shape over time. This condition is called Keratoconus.

The cornea normally exists in a dome-like shape. This particular shape provides the best focusing ability of the eye to provide sharp vision. A weak cornea, however, can no longer maintain this curvature. And gradually, a cone shape develops. This is actually where the term keratoconus comes from: ‘Kerato' refers to the cornea, and ‘conus' refers to the cone.

Having keratoconus causes all sorts of issues with vision. Initially, keratoconus can just cause you to become more nearsighted and/or have increasing astigmatism. In the early stages, updates in a glasses prescription can treat these early changes (Note: before you start to worry, not all increasing nearsightedness or changes in astigmatism are due to Keratoconus). If left untreated, however, the developing cone shape distorts vision. These distortions cause vision loss and can lead to significant impairment.

In the past, bad cases of keratoconus were often treated with transplants of the cornea! Fortunately, that has become much less common as modern treatments can prevent the keratoconus from reaching that severe stage. On top of that, special contact lenses can dramatically improve the vision of these patients. What an evolution from a pretty disabling condition to one that can be managed quite well!

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