cornea

My husband was told that he needs to have a cornea replacement surgery for his eye. He was told this about 3 years ago and it has progressed a bit. What is the cause of this and how long will it be before he has not site in that eye? He is wearing glasses with a Rx of -5.75 and still can not see that clearly.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

He could have corneal scarring due to a previous infection or injury, or an inherited condition like Fuch's corneal dystrophy or keratoconus.  If he has quite a bit of astigmatism and no history of eye infection or injury in the past, I wonder if he might have keratoconus?  Sorry, but you have not given me enough information.

MJK MD

[texasvet54]

I have the keratoconus condition that the doctor mentioned and I have had a cornea tranplant in one eye.  My KC, which is essentially thinning and bulging of the cornea which causes irregular atigmatism, progressed to the point where glasses and rigid gas permeable contact lenses did not provide adequate correction.

My tranplant was in 2002 and all went well.  In fact, it went so well that I followed up with LASIK on it 3 years later and my uncorrected vision is 20/25.

My recommendation is that you get an appointment to see a corneal specialist who exclusively deals with cornea issues.  That way, you know exactly what your husband's condition is.  If you need help in finding a doctor, you can contact the Nation Keratoconus Foundation at http://www.nkcf.org/

Hope this helps,
TexasVet