Vision is blurred, both near and far. The cornea is thinner and distorted, causing irregular astigmatism and myopia. The image is formed at two different levels.
Keratoconus is divided into four stages, and its progression may lead to a corneal transplant.
The goal of keratoconus treatment is to control the astigmatism and correct some of the myopia. It can also, when keratoconus is advanced, delay or even avoid corneal transplantation.
The two reference techniques so far are intracorneal rings and Cross Linking (CXL).
Indications:
- Stage 1: When the cornea is still clear and the myopia and astigmatism can be well corrected with glasses or lenses (usually soft or rigid lenses), keratoconus can be treated with the Cross Linking technique.
- Stage 2 and 3: When the cornea is still clear, but the astigmatism is too great to be corrected with glasses (and only rigid lenses can maintain effective vision at these stages), keratoconus can be treated with the placement of intracorneal rings.
- Stage 4: When vision can no longer be corrected with rigid lenses and the cornea shows opacities that impair the quality of vision, a corneal transplant is necessary.