1 Hospitals For Cornea/Corneal Diseases In Ohio

Cornea/Corneal Diseases (click for worldwide facilities list): The cornea is the transparent dome-shaped structure at the front of the eye that arcs over the pupil (the black circle in the middle) and the iris (the colored part of the eye). The cornea must remain transparent and have regular curvature to refract light correctly to achieve good vision.

Disease, injury, or a medical condition can cause the cornea to become cloudy, swollen, scarred or misshaped. A cornea transplant is often the only way to restore clear vision. Glasses and contact lenses alone are often not enough to correct these types of vision problems. Cornea transplants are the most common and successful type of human tissue transplant.

In addition, the cornea may be affected directly or indirectly in many systemic diseases and by many different mechanisms leading to compromise of transparency, optical function or structural integrity. Some diseases and disorders of the cornea are:

Allergies, Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye, Corneal Infections, Dry Eye, Fuchs' Dystrophy, Corneal Dystrophies such as Fuchs' dystrophy, keratoconus, lattice dystrophy, and map-dot-fingerprint dystrophy), Herpes Zoster (Shingles), Iridocorneal Endothelial Syndrome ( ICE), Ocular Herpes, Pterygium, and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

Treatments depend upon the progression of the conditions and may include artificial tears, antibiotics, or corticosteroid, anti-fungal treatment , regular, rigid and scleral contact lenses, surgery, or cornea transplants.

www.nei.nih.gov/health/cornealdisease/