Keratitis is an inflammation of the cornea — the clear, dome-shaped tissue on the front of your eye that covers the pupil and iris. Keratitis may or may not be associated with an infection. Noninfectious keratitis can be caused by a relatively minor injury, wearing your contact lenses too long or other diseases. Infectious keratitis can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.
If you have eye redness or other symptoms of keratitis, make an appointment to see your eye doctor. With prompt attention, mild to moderate cases of keratitis can usually be effectively treated without loss of vision. If left untreated, or if an infection is severe, keratitis can lead to serious complications that may permanently damage your vision.
If you have eye redness or other symptoms of keratitis, make an appointment to see your eye doctor. With prompt attention, mild to moderate cases of keratitis can usually be effectively treated without loss of vision. If left untreated, or if an infection is severe, keratitis can lead to serious complications that may permanently damage your vision.
Signs and symptoms of keratitis include:
- Eye redness
- Eye pain
- Excess tears or other discharge from your eye
- Difficulty opening your eyelid because of pain or irritation
- Blurred vision
- Decreased vision
- Sensitivity to light (photophobia)
- A feeling that something is in your eye
Management:
Management of infective keratitis is best done by a corneal specialist. Microbiological examination of a corneal scrape is usually done to identify the offending organism and appropriate antibiotics are started. Delayed treatment may result in significant corneal scar formation or other complications like corneal perforation. In majority of cases infection can be controlled by medicines alone but in a few cases Corneal Transplantation becomes necessary for complete eradication of infection (Therapeutic keratoplasty)OCULAR SURFACE DISORDERS
The ocular surface is the entire surface of the eye and it’s disorders encompass a variety of conditions like:- Allergic Conjunctivitis
- Blepharitis
- Variety of Chronic Conjunctivitis
- Dry Eye/Sjögren’s Syndrome
- Episcleritis
- Ocular Cicatricial Pemphigoid/Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid
- Pterygium
- Stevens-Johnson Syndrome
- Limbal stem cell deficiency after chemical injuries.
These conditions can occur in isolation or in combination and have a variety of treatment regimens.
Limbal stem cell deficiency:
In this condition the important stem cells situated at the limbus ( Area where the black portion of the eye meets the white portion) are destroyed due to chemical, Thermal injury or other diseases and the cornea loses its transparency leading to loss of vision.