Khanna Vision Institute Keratoconus

A little history of keratoconus corneal disease

The word keratoconus is dervied from the greek words kerato which means cornea and konos which means cone. First detailed description of this corneal disease was done by Dr. John Nottingham around 150 years ago. His contemporary Sir William Bowman also documented the vagaries of keratoconus corneal disease. Marc Amsler used placido disc to photograph and capture the shape of the cornea in this disease. They defined keratoconus corneal disease as a non inflammatory corneal disease with central or paracentral thinning leading to progressive corneal bulging or steepening which manifests initially as regular astigmatism and later as irregural astigmatism. It can result in corneal scarring, hydrops, loss of best corrected visual acuity. They further realized that this corneal disease was usually bilateral. Though it affects both eyes, one may may be more severely affected. The onset of keratoconus corneal degeneration is at puberty and progresses till around 40 years of age. 20 % of keratoconus patients may require Corneal transplant.

If you have questions reagrding keratoconus and treatment refer to our frequently asked questions on keratoconus section.