Word: corneas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...when the trouble began. "My eye started bothering me on Sunday night," she recalls. "By Tuesday morning I was in the American Hospital of Paris." Her problem: a severe infection apparently caused by her use of extended-wear contact lenses. Though doctors managed to control the infection, Melzer's cornea was so badly scarred that she was virtually blind in her right...
...become so commonplace, says Dr. Kenneth Kenyon of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, "it's rare that we don't have a patient in the hospital with one on any given day." In a small number of cases, the wearers develop severe ulcers and scarring of the cornea, the transparent layer of cells stretching over the pupil and the iris, or colored part of the eye. Last year Dr. Donald Doughman of the University of Minnesota treated six patients for serious infections. Some of them may require corneal transplants to restore their vision, he says. "We just feel...
Ophthalmologists offer several possible explanations for the extended-wear problems. The lenses can be worn for weeks because they contain many more tiny pores than traditional soft lenses, allowing an increased supply of oxygen and water to reach and nourish the cornea. But the myriad pores encourage the buildup of deposits on the lenses, creating a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The resulting infection spreads to the cornea and can cause partial or complete blindness in just 24 hours. Even if the problem is caught and treated early, Kenyon says, a scar often remains, interfering with vision...
Trouble may also occur because the lenses are worn at night. With eyes shut and lenses in place, says Doughman, the oxygen supply to the cornea may be reduced enough so that, in some cases, the corneal cells are damaged, thus making the eye vulnerable to attack by bacteria...
...sick of wearing glasses, but the LASIK people turned you down. Here's help: the new Verisyse corrective lens, which treats nearsightedness too severe for laser surgery to fix. The lens is implanted between the cornea and the iris through a 6-mm incision. If there are complications (infection, cataracts), it can be removed. A competing implantable lens, the Visian ICL, developed by Staar Surgical, still awaits FDA approval...