Corneal Infection
Three days is all it sometimes takes. A gritty eye on Monday. Redness by Tuesday. By Thursday, this patient becomes unable to open their eye in the day.
Of all the various infections, bacterial infections are by far the most prevalent. Also, the risk is magnified in people who wear contact lenses. Here in Punjab, we see a lot of fungal corneal infections as well, which follow agricultural injuries that occur whenever soil or plant matter enter the eye. This type of infection is actually a fungal infection, and therefore requires antifungal treatment, as opposed to the more standard antibiotic treatments.
At Narang Netralaya, infections are tested and identified before treatment begins. It’s a step many patients don’t expect but one that changes outcomes significantly.
Corneal Ulcer
The risk that doctors worry about most is perforation — the ulcer eating through the full thickness of the cornea. Once that happens, emergency surgery is the only path.
Keratoconus
Keratoconus has a way of hiding behind ordinary short-sightedness for years. A teenager gets glasses. They work fine. A year later, the prescription needs updating. Then again. Vision does not just become blurry, but also distorted. This results often in ghosting, and halos consistently form around lights, especially at night. Very often in teenagers who keep rubbing their eyes due to allergy.
The cornea begins to thin unevenly and protrude in an increasingly cone-like fashion. Light scatters instead of focusing. No spectacle lens fully corrects for that kind of irregular surface.
Corneal Topography (Pentacam) is most advanced machine to follow up such patients with keratoconus. Corneal collagen cross-linking — offered at Narang Netralaya — is currently the most effective way to halt that progression. Corneal crosslinking is a procedure that strengthens the cornea by use of riboflavin and exposure to UV light. While this procedure can not reverse any of the damage, for patients in their twenties, especially those for whom the condition has been steadily worsening, this is often the best defense we can offer. Specialty contact lenses handle vision correction for most patients. Transplant surgery enters the picture only when thinning has gone too far for other options.
Corneal Scar
After an infection or injury heals, a scar is what’s left. A scar at the edge of the cornea often causes no trouble at all. One sitting centrally — directly in the visual axis — causes permanent blurring that no prescription corrects.
Dry Eye and Corneal Damage
Most people think dry eye is just an inconvenience. For the majority, it is. But in severe, long-standing cases, inadequate tear coverage breaks down the corneal surface over time. The outer cell layer erodes. Some develop filamentary keratitis, which includes irritating threads of mucus which stick to the corneal surface.
Unfortunately, lubricant drops only ease the symptoms and not the condition. Finding what’s actually driving the dry eye — gland dysfunction, inflammation, environment — is what changes the outcome.