WHAT CAUSES KERATOCONUS

THIS QUARTER DR NIKHIL NASTA FOCUSES ON AND HIGHLIGHTS AN INTERESTING EYE CONDITION CALLED KERATOCONUS

- DR NIKHIL NASTA

Some of you may have heard about it but most of you would be hearing about it for the first time.Keratoconus is an eye condition wherein the cornea, the front surface of the eye is abnormally oval in shape. This causes the image formation on the retina to be blurry and leads to eye problems.

How does this occur?

Normal cornea is made of collagen fibres that are tightly linked and maintain the cornea shape, keeping it spherical, while in Keratoconus the collagen fibres are loosely set and therefore the cornea is lax like a loose elastic band. The lax cornea tends to bend forwards and this abnormal excessive curvature resembles a cone. This is called Keratoconus which literally means a conical cornea.

How does this affect vision?