Is keratoconus curable? I have had keratoconus for three decades and still have it. So the answer is, unfortunately, no. keratoconus is not curable.
Why is There no Cure for Keratoconus?
Understanding what is keratoconus. A refractive progressive eye disorder. A cure would have to involve some variation of stopping keratoconus from progressing, reversing the disease, repairing our damaged cornea, and restoring our vision or stopping what turns on keratoconus from even starting.
Furthermore, the eye is an incredibly complex organ. Those who have naturally 20/20 vision or better are nothing short of walking miracles.
For our brain to give us a clear crisp image, everything to do with the organ has to be shaped and functioning perfectly.
In addition, there are some basic, however crucial questions that we still do not have clear answers to such as:
- Why does it affect some groups of people more than others?
- Which genes are directly responsible for keratoconus?
- Why does the disease suddenly stop progressing?
These questions are just a few that we need to find answers to.
What Would a Permanent Cure for Keratoconus Look like?
As mentioned above, a cure for keratoconus would have to deal with the disease itself and the result of the disease, which is vision loss.
As someone living with the disease, many of you reading this are as well. The closest we can get to a cure for keratoconus at the present time, is the earliest detection that science will allow.
To put it differently, we already have treatments for keratoconus. If the disease is detected in the early stages of keratoconus, we can stop the disease from progressing.
Can Early Detection be a Cure?
In my opinion yes. To clarify, let’s take for example we are able to detect the disease before any major damage is done to our cornea.
We have very little vision loss and as a result of our early detection, our cornea can still reflect light properly thus giving us clear vision.
Now we can use treatments we already have in place to stop the disease from advancing to later stages. The later stages of keratoconus are where the major damage to our cornea will occur.
If we can detect the disease before these stages, in a perfect world even before the early stages, this would be an incredible win for us.
With our vision still intact, due to our early detection protocol, coupled with undergoing treatment to stop the disease from progressing.
We might only need glasses to restore our vision, and in some cases, some of us won’t need any aid to restore our vision at all as a result of the disease being detected so early.
In this scenario, we can avoid needing to use contact lenses. Needing a possible cornea transplant as I underwent. Bypassing other complications of keratoconus that can arise in the later stages of keratoconus.
Will There be a Cure Soon?
A full, permanent cure for keratoconus that will cure all cases regardless of which stage of keratoconus we are diagnosed in, is a ways away.
A full, permanent cure for keratoconus that will cure all cases regardless of which stage of keratoconus we are diagnosed in, is a ways away.
Although this may be true, there is some promising research and trial studies around cornea transplants. Rather than using a human cornea from a donor, collagen from purified pig skin was injected into the eye.
This could eliminate the need for invasive surgery and human donors, In addition, no rejection was reported in any of the participants.
In the field of vision restoration for keratoconus, there has been so much advancement due to technology. The advancements continue almost on a yearly bases.
of course this is different from a cure for keratoconus, however, all that to say, there are advancements in other aspects of the disease.
Key Takeways
- Keratoconus is a complex disease involving a complex organ.
- Still many unanswered questions.
- Early detection along with treatment is so important to increase our quality of life .
- A complete cure for keratoconus might be many years, decades away.
- There is some promising work in other areas other than a cure for keratoconus.
To Summarize
There is no cure for keratoconus nor can we reverse the disease. However, by the same token, there are very effective treatments to stop the disease from progressing followed by options for vision restoration.
Early detection is the next best thing with no permanent cure for keratoconus available.
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