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Corneal Ectasia

What is Corneal Ectasia? There is no doubt that LASIK has done miracles for patients with poor eyesight. In most...

What is Corneal Ectasia?

There is no doubt that LASIK has done miracles for patients with poor eyesight. In most cases, patients who undergo the laser eye surgery recover quickly and experience a lifetime of clear vision. It is not uncommon, however, for post LASIK patients to experience negative side effects or reverse outcomes.

Less severe side effects include dry eyes or vision impairments like seeing glares, halos, starbursts or difficulty driving at night. Post LASIK failures in their most severe form include Corneal Ectasia. This unfortunate outcome causes the cornea to thin and bulge outwards, which inevitably weakens eyesight.

Corneal Ectasia resembles a similar bulging cornea condition known as Keratoconus. In most cases, the stromal thinning that happens during LASIK or other laser operations cause Corneal Ectasia. On the other hand, Keratoconus occurs naturally.

At Global Contact Lens Specialists, we specialize in Post LASIK  and Post RK failures and Side Effects. Dr. Irwin Azman is one of the most experienced in the country when it comes to Corneal Ectasia and Keratoconus treatments.

During consultation meetings with his patients who are experiencing Corneal Ectasia, Dr. Azman evaluates their eyes, does a medical history check, then discusses the variety of treatment options available.

One possible option that Dr. Azman prescribes is scleral contact lenses. These are special gas permeable contact lenses that are so large in diameter that they fit across the scleral (the white part of the eye). The large diameter helps the lenses rest steadily and comfortably on eyes that are abnormally shaped (irregular corneas). Often they are a perfect solution for patients with Corneal Ectasia, Keratoconus or other abnormally shaped corneas.

Scleral contact lenses not only fit great, they are also designed with a liquid-filled space between the back of the surface of the lens and the front surface of the cornea. This space is positioned as a buffer that protects the compromised corneal tissue.

Certain patient cases may be considered for other treatment options that include nonsurgical collagen cross-linking or minimally invasive surgical intacs, which are basically contact lenses that insert directly onto the cornea to reshape its front surface.

Dr. Azman will exhaust all treatment options for his patients with Corneal Ectasia before recommending corneal transplants – which is always the last route to take since the procedure is more invasive.

At Global Contact Lens Specialists, we seldom reach that point. The scleral contact lenses we prescribe and other treatments, are near-guaranteed ways to repair the damage done to Corneal Ectasia eyes.