The cornea is the transparent, front part of the eye that focuses the light on the retina.

It has the highest refractive power in our eye. The conjunctiva is the transparent structure over the white part of the eye. Certain diseases may alter the transparent structure of the cornea or the conjunctiva or may cause a deformation.

The Specular Microscope is an interventional photographic technique that we may use in the diagnosis and follow-up of certain corneal diseases. It allows us to analyze the endothelial cell density, shape, size and thickness of the cornea.

Major Disorders of the Cornea-Conjunctiva:

Concretion

Keratitis (bacterial, viral, allergic)

Keratoconus

Corneal dystrophies

Degenerative diseases of the cornea

Conjunctival mass, cyst

Conjunctivitis (bacterial, viral, allergic)

Xerophthalmia

Pterygium

KERATOCONUS: Keratoconus is thinning of the cornea that is the front part of the eye and condition of irregular conical shape of the cornea. Treatments need to be applied as in order to both slow down the progression of the disease and improve the level of vision. These are: Cross Linking (CCL), Corneal Ring (INTACS), and the use of Hard Contact Lenses (not for treatment).

CCL (Corneal Cross Linking): This is the most important treatment method used to prevent the progression of the diseases in early and medium stage keratoconus cases.

INTACS (Corneal Ring): Placing 1 or 2 semi-transparent rings in the cornea to flatten the irregular conical shape, and thus to provide a better quality vision and slow progression of the disease.

CONTACT LENSES: Contact lenses are soft, toric or rigid materials that are applied to the cornea.

Contact lenses for therapeutic

Contact lenses to correct refractive errors

Contact lenses that use for cosmetic purpose.

PTERYGIUM: Known as a growing piece of meat towards to transparent layer of cornea. It begins with a yellow-white colour puff on conjunctiva and progresses towards the cornea. Symptoms include redness in the eye, stinging sensation, visual impairment causing of astigmatism. Congenital predisposition is important. It is more common in individuals who are exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet light.

With the pterygium inflammation redness, burning and stinging sensation increases. In this period can be use inflammation-suppressing drugs to relieve the eye, but main treatment for pterygium is the surgery. Due of recurrence after tissue taken from pterygium, patching should be done with a graft from patient's eye (tissue samples) or with amniotic membrane. For protection use of sunglasses is useful.