Keratoconus Treatments

In an eye with keratoconus, the collagen fibres in the cornea are more loosely arranged and not tightly bound to one another as it would be in a healthy cornea. The result is that the fibres can slip over one another and cause a steepening (cone) of the lower half of the cornea. This corneal steepening leads to a reduction in vision, often with an increase in astigmatism, that reduces the quality of vision. It typically starts in the late teens and early 20’s and is made worse by eye rubbing.

There are a number of ways to manage keratoconus if you receive this diagnosis.  The very first thing to do is to stop eye rubbing and to ensure that you are not sleeping face down with pressure on your eyes. We advise “finger to bone” as a method to break the habit of eye rubbing. Whenever the eye is itchy and you find yourself reaching up towards the eye with the intent to rub the eye, you now instead rub against the nose bridge at the inside corner of the eye. This provides almost as much relief as rubbing the eye and does not damage the delicate eye structures such as the cornea.

The correct treatment plan for you will depend on a number of factors:

• The stability of your cornea
• The reduction in vision that you are experiencing
• The location of the steepest point (tip of the cone) on your cornea
• The amount of irregular astigmatism

The primary objective of our surgical treatments for keratoconus is to stabilise the cornea and prevent further progression/ steepening. The secondary objective is to regularise the shape of the cornea so that glasses and/or contact lenses can provide clearer vision after surgery.
In a minority of cases, where keratoconus is diagnosed early, it may be possible to improve the vision during our surgical treatments to remove the need for glasses and/or contact lenses. Your Surgeon will guide you on the quality of vision you can expect to achieve after surgical treatment.