Keratoconus has revered a very heavy reputation. And in the grand skim of things Keratoconus is a very serious condition. However thanks to new technologies and Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler of the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute there is hope for patients that suffer with Keratoconus. Every year treatments are improving and showing more and more positive results.
Currently there are a couple of procedures that can improve your vision, stop regression, and some reports say they have reversed damage of Keratoconus. This is a great weight lifted from the shoulders of those suffering from Keratoconus.
Over the past decade more and more procedures are being developed in improving the quality of life for those suffering from Keratoconus. So push past the [K] word and find your treatment option today.
While the diagnosis of Keratoconus can be unsettling for anybody you should first know the facts before thinking of going blind. Although corneal transplants are not high on our list of things to do, they were an effective way to save the sight of suffers of Keratoconus.
New Advancements in Technologies have improved results for many who face this degenerative condition each day. However before we can even look at treatment options it is important that you understand the diagnosis and what it means for you.
Diagnosing Keratoconus:
Keratoconus is a change in the shape of the cornea. Keratoconus causes the cornea to become cone shape distorting the vision of the sufferer.
In its mild forms Keratoconus is treated with corrective lenses or Hard contact lens. Diagnosis of Keratoconus is determined through corneal mapping also known as a Topography mapping.
In the early stages of Keratoconus symptoms are minimal and are usually detected through regular eye exams & patient history. Generally Keratoconus starts in one eye and later moving to both. Patient family history of Keratoconus is usually detected in a new diagnosis.
Symptoms of Keratoconus:
Double vision
Squinting to see
Frequent changes in prescriptions
Irritation
Photopobia [sensitivity to light]
Ghost images
Although Keratoconus is a serious condition there is hope for sufferers today. New technologies are providing many treatment options and positive improvement in the quality of life for all those that sufferer.
Our journey through life is often a bumpy one. Many of us have trouble coping with stress and the riggers life brings without throwing Progressive Keratoconus in the mix. However finding new ways to cope with your disease can help reduce extra problems along the way. Below are a few tips to assist you in making life a little easier:
Tip 1: Educate yourself:
Your doctor can do a lot for you but when you take the initiative to find out about your illness you can ask important questions, feel more comfortable with what they are telling you, learn whys you can help yourself.
Tip 2: Find a good doctor:
It is just as important to find a eye doctor you are comfortable with as it is to find a general physician. Make sure that the doctor you choose is comfortable with you asking questions, they are concerned about you, and that they have proper time for you. If you notice it is hard to schedule an appointment, or they take more than 24 hours getting back to you than you should find another doctor.
Tip 3: Reduce the amount of times you rub your eyes:
Progressive Keratoconus can be increased by excessive eye rubbing. To ensure you don’t create anymore damage speak with your doctor about dry eye, allergies, and other conditions that can cause itchy and irritated eyes. They may be able to prescribe drops or medications to help you combat these problems.
Tip 5: Find a good contact lens fitter:
Find a contact lens fitter that sees Keratoconus on a regular basis i.e. weekly or even better daily. It is important that they offer a full range of contact lens options, soft toric contacts, hybrid contacts, piggy back lenses, Rose-K, Dyna-Z intralimbal, and Mini-sclera are some of those options that should be available.
Most of all pamper yourself. Don’t worry about all the things that are wrong or what may happen 5 years from now find out how you can treat your condition now. There are many treatments out now that can greatly improve even reverse the damage of keratoconus. Focus on your treatment, taking care of yourself, and your education. You are your best tool.
Progressive Keratoconus [a.k.a KC] can be a difficult condition to live with. The loss of vision can be frustrating and disruptive to regular daily activities we know and love. However Keratoconus can also be difficult for families with suffering loved ones.
Keratoconus affects about 1 in every 2,000 Americans. Keratoconus however is not just a problem in the US people are suffering everywhere. World-wide the disease is estimated to effect 50-230 in every 100,000 patients.
Many patients have to cope with symptoms of keratoconus daily. Managing symptoms can be difficult. They can consist of:
Eye Strain- producing headaches and blurred vision
Poor Night Vision- producing halos, double vision, and vision loss while driving at night
Photophobia- [Sensitivity to light]- producing headaches, watery eyes, and dark spots
Below are 3 helpful things to think of when managing your Keratoconus:
Tip 1: Finding the Right Doctor- Determining if your doctor is the right one for you can be difficult. Making sure you check the very basic of things is important. Here are a few things to ask to see if your doctor is right for you.
What do you specialize in? – It is important your doctor works with patients with keratoconus.
What is your success rate in treatment of Keratoconus?
What treatments does your office provide for patients with Keratoconus?
Tip 2. Assess your treatment options- Don’t wait for your doctor to tell you what options are available. Do your homework, evaluate your options and write down any additional questions you have for your doctor.
Tip 3: Support Groups- Support groups not only assist you with coping with the daily stress of Keratoconus, but it helps your family deal with it as well. Finding a support group can give your and your family comfort, knowledge, and friendship while you are being treated for your condition.
Generally when we think of Keratoconus what comes to mind? Well if you already a Keratoconus patient you may think of things like blurred vision, or nearsightedness, astigmatism, or even sensitivity to light. The truth is these are often generalized symptoms and are also associated with other conditions, making it hard to diagnose as Keratoconus. So what questions should you be asking your doctor and does your current doctor specialize in treating patients with Keratoconus?
First the symptoms of Keratoconus:
High Astigmatism
Increased Astigmatism
Blurred Vision
Distorted night vision
Sensitivity to light
Blurred Vision
Blurred Vision and sensitivity to light are also found in patients with diabetes. Patients with Diabetes also have trouble with cataracts and astigmatism. However in recent studies researchers have found that patients with diabetes are at less risk of getting Keratoconus. Why? It has been found that patients with Type 2 Diabetes often develop harder corneas, in turn causing the exact opposite of the effects of Keratoconus. However few Diabetics are checked for Keratoconus because the symptoms they are experiencing are also symptoms caused by the damage of the sugar to the eye.
Blurred Vision and Pain in the eyes can also be caused by dry eye. Doctors find that patients who do excessive reading or writing blink less causing the eye to dry out more. The effects of dry eye while the condition can be well treated and is not life threatening can cause some damage to the cornea, creating double vision, distorted images, and can cause a lot of comfort.
The most important thing is to be sure to rule out risk factors for Keratoconus, find the right doctor, and ask questions. Below is a guide to assist you:
Risk Factors:
Family History
Trauma or injury to eyes
Constant rubbing of the eye
Inherited Diseases: Down Syndrome, Some Renial diseases
Questions to Ask the Doctor:
If you have a family history of Keratoconus you might ask:
What area do you specialize in?
How much experience do you have diagnosing and treating patients with Keratoconus?
What tests and treatments do you have available?
If you notice symptoms of Keratoconus you might ask:
Can you explain the results of my tests?
If your sight is getting worse you might ask- Do you know why my vision is getting worse?
What can I do to help improve my vision or will It continue to get worse?
Make sure to log your symptoms and how long they last. If you have a family history of eye disease or you are not sure if you have a family history of eye disease make sure the doctor is aware of this. Above all don’t be afraid to ask questions no matter how small they seem. If the doctor doesn’t have time to answer your questions so you understand him- find one that will. Your Vision care should be your concern.
This year in January Steven Holcomb had undergone a vision correction treatment that restored is vision. With his uncanny talent in bobsledding few knew of the troubles Steve suffered out there on the track. However his sight had become such a problem the extraordinarily talented athlete thought of throwing in the towel and retiring. In one last effort to help himself a few organizations pitched in an assisted the athlete in getting the experimental procedures done. His response to the procedures?
Quote from USA Today:
“I could instantly see clearly. It’s an amazing feeling”
– Says a pleased Steve Holcomb
Now with the 2010 games coming up the athlete is back and stronger than ever. Holcomb entered the Bobsled World Championships on Friday in New York. His vision is almost perfect a far cry from his vision early last year at 20/1000 which for those of you that don’t know is quite poor -noted by doctors as profoundly poor in fact.
In further quotes Steve Holcomb states:
“Its life in high-definition”
His team was not aware of how bad Holcomb’s vision was until recently but says that he worked more off instinct than vision anyway. And Steve is more confident and amped about his vision than ever, no longer worrying about the constant hassle of his contacts and view life in a whole new way…as for the 2010 games will just have to wait and see!
The frequency of keratoconus in first degree relatives having the disease is much higher than the general population. Keratoconus can also be associated with other systemic syndromes such as Down’s syndrome.
The good news is that keratoconus is often not passed to children. If you have or may have children in the future, it’s only a 6% likelihood that any of your children will inherit keratoconus.
It makes sense to have your children have a baseline corneal topography between ages of 8-10 years old and have a topography every year. The subsequent topography maps can be compared to the first one to catch keratoconus early if it will be occurring. Early keratoconus can easily be “nipped in the bud” with a C3-R® treatment before it gets worse.
Quote:
“It seems that both environment and genetics play a role in Keratoconus”
-Says Dr. Brian S. Boxer Wachler, MD.
Free Radicals
All corneas, like any tissues in the body, create harmful byproducts (free radicals) of cell metabolism (metabolism is a fancy word for the activities of the cell required for it to live and do it’s thing). These byproducts are similar to a car’s exhaust that results from the car being driven. Normal corneas, like any other body tissue, have a defense system in place to neutralize the free radicals so they don’t damage the collagen.
The collagen is the equivalent of steel beams that support a building. Damage to those beams causes the building to tilt, just like damage to the collagen causes the cornea to bulge. Think of those free radicals as attacking your collagen fibers in the cornea, trying to thin it and weaken it.
The problem with keratoconus is that anti-free radical system in the cornea (called anti-oxidants) are not properly working, so the free radicals are allowed to overwhelm and wreak havoc on the collagen fibers. They bombard the cornea like mortar fire blasting into a brick wall. The free radicals damage the cornea, thin it, and ultimately allow it to bulge and steepen out. This is how your vision got worse from keratoconus.
When I started college I was an Ocean Lifeguard. At school, I found it harder to focus on textbooks. I thought it was just the chlorine from the pool. I had my eyes checked and I was diagnosed with astigmatism in one eye and I started wearing glasses while studying. As lifeguarding became my chosen profession, I found it hard to focus in the afternoon as the Southern California sun set lower in the sky.
When running out for a rescue, I would often lose my prescription sunglasses. I tried soft lenses, but sand got under them and that was uncomfortable. The lenses often slid up behind my eyes and even floated away when I swam. I often went without correction because of the irritation. By late afternoon I would see double images of objects far away, such as a boat on the horizon.
When laser eye surgery became available, I was excited. However, I was discouraged to learn that I had keratoconus in one eye and was not a candidate for LASIK. I came across an article and some studies by Dr. Boxer Wachler. I was optimistic after my first meeting with him in 1999. He explained a new procedure Intacs that would help correct my keratoconus and vision. Back then Intacs had not been reported on a patient with keratoconus in the United States, but he felt it was ready to be attempted. As I was a good candidate, I welcomed the opportunity.A week after surgery, the vision in that eye improved to a great degree. I was able to see nearly equally with both eyes and it was unnecessary to wear glasses or contacts at work. After a few months I noticed that I was relying more and more on the corrected eye!
It has now been about eight years since I had Intacs and I still do not wear corrective lenses. I am able to pick objects out of the glare on the horizon and street signs on the freeway well before I need to turn. The freedom I have gained and the confidence I now have in my vision has proven invaluable to me and my ability to continue in my profession.
The ability to see well in lifeguarding is critical, and I no longer have the worry that I might miss something that could result in someone’s pain, suffering or their life. I owe this self assuredness to Dr. Boxer Wachler and to Intacs.
I feel fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time in history. I can appreciate the saying, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I am glad that my pioneering experience helped pave the way for the thousands of other patients who have subsequently benefited from innovative advancements for keratoconus. I am pleased to dedicate this book to the thousands of future patients who will benefit from these innovations.
Bobsledder- Steven Holcomb has a lot to say in this article from USA Today Written by Tim Reynolds…
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Bobsledder Steven Holcomb was speeding down the icy track for a preseason training run a few weeks ago, when a piece of duct tape tore off the chassis and whizzed past his helmet. His teammates weren’t bothered. They’d seen it happen dozens of times. Holcomb, though, was spooked. Until then, he’d never seen that before.
In a sport that demands razor-sharp hand-eye coordination, Holcomb excels even with a degenerative eye disease called keratoconus that makes reading a challenge – say nothing for steering a bobsled in a snowstorm. “Sometimes, I really didn’t see all that much out there,” he said.
Given his success, that’s hard to believe. Holcomb is a national champion, a World Cup star and was the top American driver at the 2006 Turin games. He navigates slippery tracks at 80 mph in a sport where tiny mistakes can lead to disaster. Yet he did all that with vision so blurry that he couldn’t read the big “E” atop an eye chart from more than 6 feet away. A $15,000 procedure may have saved Holcomb’s vision – plus could nudge him closer to gold in Vancouver in 2010.
“If he was in the top five in the world before, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s soon to be the top in the world,” said Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler of Beverly Hills, Calif., the corneal surgeon who developed the procedure that Holcomb underwent, Holcomb would love to see that.
Keratoconus causes the cornea to bulge outward, causing blurred vision. In some mild cases, glasses or contacts can be the answer. In Holcomb’s case, neither did the trick. Lasik didn’t work, either; Holcomb tried that in 2000, but was back in glasses within a year. So after last season, he decided he’d either find a solution or retire.
“They couldn’t make contacts strong enough for me anymore,” Holcomb said. “And since it’s a progressive disease, I had to get a new prescription, a stronger prescription, every three months. Finally they said, ‘You know, we can’t make them any stronger.’ So it was the end. For a while, I thought it was the end.”
U.S. bobsled coach Brian Shimer didn’t want to see that happen. He researched options, found Boxer Wachler, and sent Holcomb to California to meet the doctor. Holcomb was deemed a candidate for Visian ICL, or Implantable Collamer Lens, a 9-minute surgery where a contact is embedded behind the iris. It’s permanent, and so far, it’s worked for Holcomb.
His vision, once as bad as 20-1000 – which gets defined as “profound visual impairment” – is now close to perfect. He sees things on tracks that he never knew were there before.
“I was part of the FDA approval study for it,” Holcomb said. “I couldn’t wear contacts the day of the surgery, so they literally had to walk me around the room. And then they did it, I got up, and just like that, I was 20-20. It’s incredible. I call it an eye-opening experience.” Pun intended, of course.
Holcomb didn’t just suffer from keratoconus, but also was extremely nearsighted. So Boxer Wachler – who has performed similar procedures before live on national television, plus has worked with other athletes, most notably Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Derek Fisher – began the process by having Holcomb undergo what’s called C3-R, something that strengthens the anchors within the cornea and minimizes the bulging effect.
It’s relatively new technology and isn’t offered by many eye doctors yet. Boxer Wachler is considered the pioneer in this sort of work. “We’ve been doing this for five years,”Boxer Wachler said. “It’s not experimental for us. We call it an off-label procedure.”
But because of the costs involved, Holcomb almost decided not to undergo any procedure. Holcomb isn’t a rich man, by any stretch of the imagination. Bobsledders don’t get into their sport for money; it’s rare to find a sled that turns a profit at the end of a season, no matter how many races a team wins in a given year. The technology is costly, the perks are few, and when Holcomb was told how much Visian ICL would cost, he initially balked at going forward.
“It was every amount of prize money I’d ever won,” Holcomb said. “So the U.S. Bobsled Federation stepped up and donated and now I hope they can collect on it.” That shouldn’t be a problem.
When the World Cup season starts in Germany in a few weeks, Holcomb will be among the favorites once again. He ended last season ranked fourth among drivers in two- and four-man bobsled, and now with his vision no longer a stressful issue, he can’t see any reason why he shouldn’t improve on the track.
“Now that I can see, things are starting to click,” Holcomb said. “I already could feel out there on the track. It’s like putting a face to a name now. My eyes don’t hurt. My head doesn’t hurt. Before, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even play catch before. Someone would throw me something and it’d hit me in the face. Now I can focus on what’s important out there.”
Catherine has struggled for many years with the deterioration of her vision. As most Keratoconus patients do she has had a number of different corrective eye wear including Hard contacts which are many times difficult to handle creating irritation to the eyes, pain and discomfort – to having soft contacts that still don’t provide her with adequate vision.
Catherine started wearing the Hard contacts as a teen has suffered still with the problems of vision disturbances. Her Keratoconus had created a haze over things she saw making it difficult to see clear enough to make turns and walk down and up stairways while walking. Sometimes getting help with walking from her teenage children.
Catherine has gone to several ophthalmologists over the years. Receiving the same answer “We don’t know how to improve your vision.” Some requested she get a cornea transplant that even see considered but doctors were hesitant to perform. Recently Catherine did a search on treatments for Keratoconus and found Dr. Boxer Wachler.
She discovered that there were treatments that could help her with her severe nearsightedness and progressive Keratoconus. She immediately had an evaluation. Dr. Boxer Wachler performed 3 Treatments on Catherine’s eyes giving her remarkable results. In just 24 hours she stated:
Quote:
“For the first time in my life ever I can see things Clear”
Catherine is walking down the stairs without fear of falling, bending corners, and has the freedom of living a normal life again. Although see still wears glasses Catherine is very grateful for the procedures she received and to Dr. Boxer Wachler who gave her what see always dreamed…vision.
The procedures performed on Catherine where Intacs, C3-R®, and CK. These procedures can stop the progression of Keratoconus and help reverse the damage of Keratoconus on the eyes. Catherine had severe damage to her eyes so she still will need corrective lenses but her vision has improved drastically. The procedure affects each patient differently depending on the severity of the Keratoconus.
