{"id":28518,"date":"2021-07-29T16:07:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T14:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/what-is-keratoconus\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T15:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T14:57:07","slug":"what-is-keratoconus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/what-is-keratoconus\/","title":{"rendered":"What is keratoconus?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CZ_w-hnXIcM\" width=\"560\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Dr. Victor Derhartunian explains what keratoconus is<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/keratokonus\/\">Keratoconus<\/a> is a natural corneal weakness that can lead to a corneal transplant in individual cases.<br \/>\nIt is important to assess whether this disease is stable or progressive.<br \/>\nIf the disease is progressive and not yet at a very advanced stage, keratoconus can also be stabilized with so-called cross-linking.    <\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What happens with keratoconus?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keratoconus is a degenerative disease of the cornea &#8211; the cornea becomes thinner and a cone-shaped protrusion develops, which can progress further and further.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The protrusion leads to an irregular <a href=\"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/hornhautverkruemmung-astigmatismus\/\">curvature of the cornea<\/a>.<br \/>\nWhy the cornea thins and bulges has not yet been conclusively researched.<br \/>\nThe causes are thought to be genetic factors in particular, but also the mechanical impact on the cornea caused by vigorous eye rubbing.<br \/>\nAt the beginning of the disease, correction is possible with the help of visual aids.<br \/>\nIn later stages, eye surgery may be necessary.<br \/>\nIn addition to a corneal transplant, crosslinking can also be considered as a treatment method.     <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Symptoms of keratoconus: Impaired quality of vision<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The disease occurs gradually.<br \/>\nThe main symptom is a deterioration in vision. Only rarely is it an acute keratoconus, which is an emergency and manifests itself as a sudden deterioration in vision, eye pain and tearing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a rule, both eyes are affected by keratoconus.<br \/>\nThose affected typically experience symptoms such as increased <a href=\"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/werde-ich-lichtempfindlich-nach-dem-augenlasern\/\">sensitivity to<\/a> glare and <a href=\"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/werde-ich-lichtempfindlich-nach-dem-augenlasern\/\">light<\/a> or blurred and distorted vision.<br \/>\nThe perception of double and multiple images is possible.<br \/>\nA deterioration in night vision is often noticed.   <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frequency of keratoconus &#8211; who is affected?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keratoconus is said to affect 4 to 700 out of 10,000 people &#8211; a large variance.<br \/>\nBoth sexes are equally affected.<br \/>\nKeratoconus often occurs at a young age.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is difficult to quantify the number of cases.<br \/>\nThis is not least due to the fact that the disease varies in severity among those affected &#8211; the point at which one can speak of a definite diagnosis of keratoconus is determined differently. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can the disease progress at any age?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keratoconus often develops between the ages of 10 and 20.<br \/>\nIn the progression phase of the disease, it is referred to as active keratoconus.<br \/>\nProgression stagnates as soon as the body&#8217;s connective tissue loses elasticity and becomes stiffer &#8211; this is usually the case between the ages of 35 and 45.<br \/>\nIn rare cases, active keratoconus can also be observed at a later age.   <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keratoconus: risk factors and prevention  <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the causes of keratoconus have not been conclusively clarified, effective prevention is not possible.<br \/>\nIncreased eye rubbing is considered a risk factor, which is why rubbing and other impacts on the eye should be avoided. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treating keratoconus with crosslinking  <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keratoconus can be stopped by a medical procedure: <a href=\"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/crosslinking\/\">crosslinking<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CXL (corneal cross-linking) is one of the world&#8217;s most recognized methods of treating keratoconus &#8211; with a success rate of over 90 percent when it comes to stopping or even reversing keratoconus.<br \/>\nDuring surgery, the cornea is treated with vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and UV-A light.<br \/>\nThe aim is to prevent the progression of the disease and restore a stable quality of vision.<br \/>\nThe earlier the treatment is carried out, the more vision can be preserved.   <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is keratoconus?<br \/>\nDr. Victor Derhartunian explains what keratoconus is and what treatment options are available.<br \/>\nRead more&#8230;  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[157],"class_list":["post-28518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faqs-en","tag-keratoconus-glossary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyelaser.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}