Purpose: Keratoconus is a progressive disease of the cornea which can lead to blindness as irregular astigmatism increases. Currently, a variety of methods are available for the treatment of keratoconus, and in certain cases, it may be difficult to choose the most appropriate option. This article reviews available treatment modalities for keratoconus to provide the practitioner with practical and useful information for selecting the most suitable option for each individual patient.
Methods: To review treatment methods for different stages of keratoconus, PubMed (United States National Library of Medicine) and Scopus (Elsevier BV) databases were searched using the keywords "keratoconus", "contact lens", "cross-linking", "Intacs", "keratoplasty", "gene therapy", and "irregular astigmatism", and related articles were reviewed based on disease assessment parameters and treatment methods.
Results: Various methods are available for the treatment of keratoconus: eyeglasses and contact lenses in the early stages, cross-linking for stabilizing disease progression, intrastromal corneal ring segments (ICRS) for reducing refractive errors or flattening the cornea, and penetrating keratoplasty (PK) and deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK), conductive keratoplasty, gene therapy and more recently, bowman layer transplantation (BL transplantation) in advanced stages of the disease. To achieve optimum results, it is essential to choose the best option for each individual patient.
Conclusions: A commonality of the reviewed papers was the advancement of novel diagnostic and treatment methods in ophthalmology, which can delay the need for corneal grafting. A better understanding of keratoconus treatment options can help enhance visual rehabilitation and prevent blindness in keratoconus patients.
Keywords: Bowman layer transplantation; Contact lens; Cross-linking; Gene therapy; Intacs; Keraflex; Keratoconus; Keratoplasty.