What Is Conductive Keratoplasty?
As people age and their eyesight starts to decline, this often spurs many to find solutions that will help to improve their vision. Yet, when the solution of corrective eye surgery is suggested, many people have a big problem with a procedure that would “cut into” their delicate and sensitive eyes. But the technology of the day has provided a number of minimally invasive solutions to vision correction, including conductive keratoplasty (CK) which is even less invasive than laser eye surgery.
CK is a fairly new kind of laser eye surgery in practice today. It utilizes a mild heat that is generated from radio waves. These waves are used to reduce the size of the connective tissues. These tissues are a glue-like collagen, found in the periphery of the cornea and which can cause vision distortions.
The procedure of conductive keratoplasty actually re-shapes the structure of the cornea, making it more “steeped” in shape. This effects different visual conditions differently. People who have presbyopia will end up with better near-vision, and patients who have both presbyopia and farsightedness will enjoy better close and distance vision.
CK is not considered to be an appropriate treatment if you are nearsighted, and Lasik eye surgery would be recommended as a better procedure for people who are either nearsighted or have an astigmatism. CK is also currently being studied for its effectiveness with correcting astigmatisms, and while early indications are that it might be effective, it is not yet being widely used to correct that type of vision problem.
When CK was first introduced, there were some problems reported with the stability of the vision corrections and instances where the cornea actually reverted back to it’s original condition before the corrective eye surgery was done. However, in recent years there have been many improvements in laser eye surgery techniques utilized in CK, and clinical studies in more recent years have shown that the procedure is delivering more stable results consistently.
In April of 2002, the FDA of the United States approved conductive keratoplasty for use with patients over the age of 40 who had mild conditions of farsightedness. Later, in 2004, the FDA expanded its approval to include presbyopia, which is a very common condition that typically effects people as they reach middle age. Presbyopia is a natural side-effect of the aging process and it causes the lens of the eye to stiffen, making it more difficult to focus at different distances at the same time.
As a result of these improvements, CK has been gaining a much greater level of acceptance among laser eye surgeons and potential patients are becoming more interested in this procedure. Ultimately, it will still be some years before long-term data on the success or failure of CK will be available, in order to make a comprehensive comparison between this type of corrective eye surgery and other procedures, such as Lasik vision surgery.
Unlike Lasik laser eye surgery, conductive keratoplasty does not involve any type of cutting into the surface of the ocular tissue and no type of external instrument is inserted into the eye. Because of this, it is almost unheard of for CK to have any serious complications or infections of any kind, and the main issue is with the lasting effect of the procedure.
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