Treatment

Treatment for keratoconus depends on the severity of your condition and how quickly the condition is progressing. Generally, there are two approaches to treating keratoconus: slowing the progression of the disease and improving your vision.

If your keratoconus is progressing, corneal collagen cross-linking might be indicated to slow or stop the progression. This is a newer treatment that has the potential to prevent you from needing a cornea transplant in the future. However, this treatment does not reverse keratoconus or improve vision.

Improving your vision depends on the severity of keratoconus. Mild to moderate keratoconus can be treated with eyeglasses or contact lenses. This will likely be a long-term treatment, especially if your cornea becomes stable with time or from cross-linking.

In some people with keratoconus, the cornea becomes scarred with advanced disease or wearing contact lenses becomes difficult. In these people, cornea transplant surgery might be necessary.

Lenses

• Eyeglasses or soft contact lenses. Glasses or soft contact lenses can correct blurry or distorted vision in early keratoconus. But people frequently need to change their prescription for eyeglasses or contacts as the shape of their corneas change.
• Hard contact lenses. Hard (rigid, gas permeable) contact lenses are often the next step in treating more-advanced keratoconus. Hard lenses may feel uncomfortable at first, but many people adjust to wearing them and they can provide excellent vision. This type of lens can be made to fit your corneas.
• Piggyback lenses. If rigid lenses are uncomfortable, your doctor may recommend "piggybacking" a hard contact lens on top of a soft one.
• Hybrid lenses. These contact lenses have a rigid center with a softer ring around the outside for increased comfort. People who can't tolerate hard contact lenses may prefer hybrid lenses.
• Scleral lenses. These lenses are useful for very irregular shape changes in your cornea in advanced keratoconus. Instead of resting on the cornea like traditional contact lenses do, scleral lenses sit on the white part of the eye (sclera) and vault over the cornea without touching it.

If you're using rigid or scleral contact lenses, make sure to have them fitted by an eye doctor with experience in treating keratoconus. You'll also need to have regular checkups to determine whether the fitting remains satisfactory. An ill-fitting lens can damage your cornea.

Therapies

• Corneal collagen cross-linking. In this procedure, the cornea is saturated with riboflavin eyedrops and treated with ultraviolet light. This causes cross-linking of the cornea, which stiffens the cornea to prevent further shape changes. Corneal collagen cross-linking may help to reduce the risk of progressive vision loss by stabilizing the cornea early in the disease.

Surgery

You may need surgery if you have corneal scarring, extreme thinning of your cornea, poor vision with the strongest prescription lenses or an inability to wear any type of contact lenses. Depending on the location of the bulging cone and the severity of your condition, surgical options include:

• Penetrating keratoplasty. If you have corneal scarring or extreme thinning, you'll likely need a cornea transplant (keratoplasty). Penetrating keratoplasty is a full-cornea transplant. In this procedure, doctors remove a full-thickness portion of your central cornea and replace it with donor tissue.
• Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK). The DALK procedure preserves the inside lining of the cornea (endothelium). This helps avoid the rejection of this critical inside lining that can occur with a full-thickness transplant.

Cornea transplant for keratoconus generally is very successful, but possible complications include graft rejection, poor vision, infection and astigmatism. Astigmatism is often managed by wearing hard contact lenses again, which is usually more comfortable after a cornea transplant.