Do you feel that your cornea loosing the clarity as it was before? You may be a victim of granular dystrophy. So in order to keep your vision fit till 50, get your eye treated until its too late.
Granular dystrophy is a eye condition in which cornea becomes opaque due to the incurrence of granular spots formed over the cornea. On the basis of position of the spots the eye condition is classified into three parts:
- anterior or frontal corneal dystrophy
- stromal or central corneal dystrophy
- posterior or back corneal dystrophy
This is mainly a genetic disease, which does not result into any type of inflammation. In many cases it may be caused due to a mutation caused in the gene bigh3 which helps to maintian corneal transparency. A person contract this disease at a very early age, at 20, and the person starts to see his or her vision getting imperfect gradually.
The person will see images similar to as bread crumb like opaque spaces, later on if untreated, it will lead to complete blindness.
Medical Care
When recurrent erosions occur with this condition, they are treated like any other form of recurrent erosion.
Under care of an ophthalmologist, bandage contact lens along with antibiotics can be prescribed; alternatively, patching with an antibiotic ointment can be used. Some physicians treat recurrent erosions with frequent antibiotic ointments while awake.
Once the acute episode of recurrent erosion has resolved, preventive treatment may include sodium chloride 5% drops or artificial tear lubricating drops during the day and lubricating ointment at bedtime.
If recurrent corneal erosions occur despite medical therapy, then excimer laser phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) may be considered.Surgical CareExcimer laser PTK is quite effective at removing opacities from the superficial cornea. When deep opacities are causing significant visual symptoms, corneal transplantation may be required.
Excessive corneal erosions or visual decrease from superficial opacities can be treated with PTK. Excimer laser PTK removes superficial opacities, smooths the corneal surface, and allows the epithelium to re-adhere more tightly.
If the visual acuity drops and most of the opacities are deep, lamellar or full-thickness corneal transplantation can be performed. Although the success rate for corneal transplantation is very high, granular deposits recur with time. Fortunately, when the deposits recur, they tend to be superficial, and amenable to treatment with excimer laser PTK.
Filed under Corneal Transplantation, Featured Article | Tags: Cornea, Corneal Transplant, eye, genetic disease, granular dystrophy, laser, mutation | Comment Below
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