How is keratoconus treated?

There are several methods for treating keratoconus, depending on how severe the condition is. Your eye care provider can help to decide which, if any, of these treatments may help you. Treatments include eyeglasses, contact lenses, implantable ring segments, corneal crosslinking and cornea transplant.

In the early stages of the disease, you can correct vision with normal eyeglasses or soft contact lenses. As keratoconus gets worse, eyeglasses may not correct your vision because of the amount of irregular astigmatism. You may need a special type of hard contact lens.

Corneal crosslinking uses ultraviolet (UV) light treatment that may slow or stop the keratoconus from getting worse. In this procedure, you also receive local anesthesia. Your provider puts drops of a drug containing riboflavin (vitamin B2) into your eye for up to 30 minutes. Then, your provider exposes your eye to an UV light for up to 30 minutes. The purpose of corneal crosslinking procedure is to strengthen the bonds between your cornea’s collagen fibers and surrounding proteins. This can help keep your cornea’s shape from getting steeper.

INTACS® are small devices your provider inserts into your cornea to improve vision or make it easier to fit you with contact lenses. Your provider performs this procedure while you’re under local anesthesia (drops numb your eye). Then, your provider creates channels in the cornea and inserts the rings into these channels. The rings help to flatten the cornea and partially correct the cone shape the keratoconus causes.

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Your provider may suggest that you have a cornea transplant if you have keratoconus that’s advanced. They’ll replace your diseased cornea with corneal tissue from a human donor. Usually, people with keratoconus have better vision after the transplant, but it may take more than a year for vision to stabilize. Some people may still need a specialty contact lens after the transplant to get their best vision.

Potential complications from corneal cross-linking include:

Potential complications from INTACS include:

Infection.

Issues with glare or halos.

Corneal thinning.

Potential complications related to cornea transplant include:

Potential complications or side effects from glasses or contact lenses are rare, but can happen. Let your provider know if you have any redness or discomfort in your eyes.

Your recovery time for keratoconus treatment varies by the type of treatment. It can take days for some treatments and much longer for others.