The following list of corneal transplant surgery terms is provided by the National Keratoconus Foundation (NKCF) website. They have more information on corneal transplants, as well as being a leader in information on keratoconus.

Corneal Transplant Surgery Terms Defined

Medical terminology is a language of its own. It can be confusing and alarming if you don’t know what the words mean. This will help you sort out the language of transplant surgery.

Atopic or Atopy – conditions associated with allergy like: asthma, eczema, hayfever

Catherine Warren, RN
Executive Director
National Keratoconus Foundation
A program of the Discovery Eye Foundation

No one wants to loose their eyesight, so Keeping your eyes healthy is a number one priority. Here are the top 10 tips for saving your vision.

8/4/15

Susan DeRemer, CFRE
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation

The stories that people share about their vision loss help remind everyone not to take your vision for granted. The following article is from the Keratoconus Group Blog, and is used with their permission. It reveals the emotional toll of keratoconus, while trying to find the most comfortable treatment option that will allow you to see.

A New Lease on Life

My keratoconus story begins just as one major life event ended and another was just starting.

I finished my dissertation and successfully defended it in June of 2007 then set off across the country with my then girlfriend (now wife) to start new jobs. Everything was on the upswing and all appeared normal. However, it had been about a year since my last visit to the optometrist and being in a new place, I had to go through the dubious task of finding one.

I ended up getting an appointment with the optometrist at our local Walmart as I had broken my only pair of glasses and needed a quick replacement. The visit was going normal (or so I thought) until he came back into the exam room after checking on something. It was with a grave expression that he told me that he noted some concerning findings and I should probably speak with someone who had more experience with keratoconus.

For the next hour or so, I was in a panic that I was going blind. That is until I got online to get more details on what this was all about. After reading into the late evening, a great many eye-related issues over the past several years suddenly made sense. I immediately recalled my many complaints about my night time driving becoming more bothersome because oncoming headlights were blinding. It was on the many forums where I first learned of the terms halos and ghosting, which I would become all too familiar with in subsequent years. Lastly, I had tried to switch from glasses to soft contact lenses roughly a year before my move and was not able to do it. I didn’t know it then but my left contact kept sliding off because of my enlarged cone. In retrospect, I still cannot fathom how my optometrist did not recognize the symptoms.

After a little research, I found a local optometrist who had experience with KC. He basically wanted to put me in RGP lenses and call it a day. This was a horrible experience and I will save everyone the gory details. Suffice it to say, I would stay in glasses until February of this year–nearly 7.5 years since my initial diagnosis.

Little by little I was becoming aware that my vision was getting worse. Night time driving was becoming near impossible, reading on the computer (which is a huge bulk of my job) was increasingly difficult and the photophobia was simply impossible to ignore–especially at stores and restaurants that used brutal florescent lighting. I did have tomography scans done yearly and thankfully the progression was slow, but it was still progression. Something had to change.

After leaving my optometrist for several philosophical reasons, I was able to find a group outside of my area, but still within driving distance, who were expert with patients with KC. It was there that I learned about scleral lenses and how they could be of benefit. My ophthalmologist and I also discussed cross-linking, but decided that since FDA approval is around the corner, we have the luxury of time to wait. However, he strongly encouraged me to switch to the scleral lenses.

I am ever thankful that he did. My life, in just a few short weeks, has been irrevocably changed. We are still working out the fine tuning, but the vision restored is unbelievable. I never thought I would see this well again. Overall, vision is 20/25 and I’ve also noted that my peripheral vision is back to normal. Also, and most thankfully, my night time vision and ability to drive safely have been restored. It is still unbelievable what these lenses have done for me and my overall quality of life.

There is the old cliché that you don’t know what you have until it is lost. I am still amazed how I didn’t truly realize how bad my vision had gotten until I got the sclerals. For those with KC and are on the fence as to how best to deal with it, please don’t hesitate to talk with your doctor to find the best solution for you.

7/30/15

Rene Vasquez
Keratoconus Advocate

Animals With Unique Eyes

Vision, while it is important to humans to carry out daily tasks, is a matter of life and death to animals in the wild. Predators need powerful, accurate vision to stalk their targets, while prey animals have developed a wide field of vision that is sensitive to movement, alerting them of danger. For each animal, their vision is a product of their environment and may have evolved over time. Here are some animals with unique eyes.

The tarsier is a small mammal about the size of a squirrel with eyes that are the largest of any mammal relative to body size, and weighing more than its brain. For a human to have eyes in the same proportion to body size, our eyes would be the size of grapefruits! The other unusual thing about a tarsier’s eyes is that they do NOT rotate in the eye socket. The tarsier must use his very flexible neck to rotate his head 180 degrees to see around him. He has great night vision, but very poor color vision, which is common with most nocturnal animals.

Another animal with relatively large fixed eyes is the owl. He also has a layer of tissue in the eye called the tapetum lucidum. This tissue is commonly found in nocturnal animals and deep sea animals in the back of the eye immediately behind the retina. It reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light available to see. Also because the eyes are fixed, owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees in both directions and 90 degrees vertically to look around.

A chameleon’s eyelids are fused, covering almost the entire eyeball except for the pupil. What is more unique is that the eyes work independently of each other and the chameleon can process the completely different images at the same time. However, when the chameleon spots potential prey, it focuses both eyes in the same direction, using stereoscopic vision for precise distance and depth perception. They have a full 360 degree field of vision and can see ultraviolet light.

Goats, along with most other hooved animals, have horizontal rectangular pupils. These pupils give them a field of vision of 320-340 degrees. Because of the special shape and large size of these pupils, the goat is able to have more control on how much light enters the eye, so they can see more easily at night.

Dragonflies have compound eyes that almost cover their heads and give them a full 360 degree filed of vision. The large part of their eyes is made up of 30,000 visual units called ommatidia (a cluster of light-sensing photoreceptor cells with a lens). This gives them very acute vision, even in low light. What makes their vision even more remarkable is that they also have three smaller eyes call ocelli which can detect movement faster than the larger eyes, sending the information to the dragonfly’s motor center allowing for spilt second reaction times.

One of the most unusual eyes is that of the leaf-tailed gecko. The pupils are vertical with a series of “pinholes” that widen at night, allowing as much light as possible into the eye. Since they also have a more photoreceptor cells than most animals, they have incredible night vision. The eyes also have a series of intricate eye patterns to help with camouflage since there is no eyelid. Their eyes are protected by a transparent membrane, which they clean with their tongues.

Cats such as lions, tigers jaguars and leopards have extremely sharp night vision due to the fact they have the tapetum lucidum reflective tissue and far more rods (the light sensors of the eye) than cones (the color sensors of the eye) in their eyes compared to humans. However, because of the reduced number of cones, they can only distinguish a very limited range of colors.

The mantis shrimp has compound eyes like the dragonfly but with only 10,000 ommatidia per eye. However, each row of ommatidia has a particular function – some are for detecting light, others for detecting colors, etc. Mantis shrimp (who are not actually shrimp) have remarkable color vision with 12 types of color receptors (humans have three) as well as ultraviolet, infrared and polarized light vision. This means they have the most complex eyesight of any animal. Each of the manits shrimp’s eyes sit at the end of stalks allowing them to move independently from each other and the ability to rotate up to 70 degrees. Finally, unlike humans, the visual information is processed by the eyes themselves instead of the brain.

While the tarsier has the largest eyes relative to its size, the colossal squid has the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. Each of the colossal squid’s eyes can be as large as a foot in diameter. These exceptionally large eyes allow them to see well in dim light conditions, 2000 meters below the ocean surface. Also each eye has a built-in “flashlight” which can produce light so that whenever the squid focuses it eyes to the front, there is enough light for it to see its prey in the dark.

Susan DeRemer, CFRE
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation

Signs of eye disease that you should be aware of for early treatment.

Susan DeRemer, CFRE
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation

The National Keratoconus Foundation, a program of the Discovery Eye Foundation, has been serving the keratoconus (KC) community for over 27 years. They have been a leading source of information on KC, while also providing support and educational programs, such as the OC Keratoconus Seminar this Saturday, March 14th. One of the reasons for the timely, quality information they are able to share, are their relationships with leading eye care professionals around the world.

We are happy to report that a new professional organization for eye care professionals treating KC and other forms of corneal ectasia has been formed, the International Keratoconus Academy of Eye Care Professionals. It is our hope that we can join together in in providing accurate information on KC as well as find future treatments and cures, defining the future of keratoconus. Here is more information about the new organization.

An international physician’s advisory board comprised of expert optometrists and ophthalmologists is being formed. For more information or questions about IKA, please contact them at info@keratoconusacademy.com.

3/10/15

Susan DeRemer
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation

We will resume posting on Tuesday, January 6th.

Susan DeRemer, CFRE
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation

9/2/14

“The theater of the mind could be generated by the machinery of the brain.”

What is Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS)?

1. It was discovered in 1790 by Charles Bonnet.
2. 10-40% of low vision individuals experience hallucinations.
3. Only 1% of them acknowledge it!
4. Images usually appear suddenly and stop as suddenly. They don’t fade in and out.
5. Most of the time, the images are not people or things familiar to you.
6. They may be startling, but they are not frightening or sinister.
7. It is like watching a movie as the images don’t interact with you, unlike psychological images that interact with you and you with them.
8. CBS usually stops within 12-18 months.

Why does it happen?

1. Vision takes place in the brain.
2. Different parts of the visual brain are triggered by different information. Faces fire up one part of the brain; buildings another and the scientists can see what activity is happening where.
3. As you lose vision and the visual parts of the brain are not getting any input, they become hyperactive and excitable. This causes them to start to “fire” spontaneously.
4. Example – If you damage (or lose vision) in a particular area, such as the one for faces, you lose the ability to recognize faces.  That will create abnormal activity in that area and you will hallucinate faces (*see more detailed explanation below).

What Can You Do?

1. There is no cure or truly effective treatment.
2. Acknowledge that you are having the visions and talk about them.
3. Look on them as an experience rather than a problem. It’s fascinating how the brain works, isn’t it?
4. Having a good sense of humor can help in adjusting well to CBS.
5. Sometimes, eye exercises — such as looking from left to right without moving one’s head for 15 to 30 seconds — can help stop a hallucination.
6. Increased room lighting can sometimes prevent an episode of CBS visions if they commonly take place in low light. Changing the lighting in the middle of an episode may stop them.
7. Stress and fatigue could be contributing factors, so try to get enough rest and reduce stress.
8. Identify and engage in activities you enjoy; keep up your social life. Reduced social isolation, boredom, lack of stimulation, and low activity seem to increase CBS.

For more information on Charles Bonnet Syndrome, please go to the Macular Degeneration Partnership website.

*Testing for functional brain imagery as individuals hallucinate can find different parts of the brain are activated.

Your brain has a particular area or lobe where vision is interpreted. The light energy that bounces off objects enters the eye and is converted to chemical energy by the retinal cells. That energy is sent through the optic nerve where processing of the vision starts to occur. When it reaches the visual cortex, it is sent to very specific areas of the brain and specific areas of the brain see specific things.

The fusiform gyrus processes faces, but different areas process the parts of faces. While damage in the fusiform gyrus causes you to lose the ability to recognize faces, abnormal activity in that area will  cause you to hallucinate faces. An area in the anterior part of this gyrus is where teeth and eyes are recognized. There are other areas that specifically sees cartoons and another part for buildings and landscapes.

Judith Delgado
Executive Director
Macular Degeneration Partnership
A Program of Discovery Eye Foundation