Corneal sclerosis

It is a photochemotherapy, aimed at holding the cornea together and increasing its rigidity, and is the latest and safest treatment for the treatment of early keratoconus.

By asking Dr. Muhammad Hantira, Honorary Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, um Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia
, he explained that:
The idea of treatment is to saturate the corneal tissue with riboflavin for half an hour, during which this substance is distilled on the surface of the eye intensively (a point every few minutes for half an hour) after that, ultraviolet rays are shed on the surface of the cornea for another half hour, so an interaction occurs between the rays and the chemical that leads to strengthening the ties between the tissues and thus increasing the cohesion of the cornea.

Dakour Hantira also pointed out:
We are facing an operation that is not aimed at ridding the patient of the trouble of wearing glasses and lenses as much as it is aimed at stopping the gradual weakness that affects keratoconus and trying to help the patient to have good vision and treat it before it worsens.

Another thing that should be taken into account when talking about corneal hardening operations is the need to meet the rest of the conditions required for the success of the operation, the most important of which is that the corneal thickness is not less than 400 microns, and that it is free of opacities, clouds or severe dryness.

Only three minutes for treatment
One of the problems facing the patient and the doctor is the length of the process, as the patient keeps his eye open for more than half an hour to receive phototherapy, which causes a lot of pain and stress, hence this new technique that significantly shortened the treatment time from thirty minutes to only three minutes.

Accelerated phototherapy
is the same steps as traditional photochemical therapy but with a significant reduction in time, with the change of the energy power emitted by ultraviolet rays from 3 mW/cm² to 30 mW/cm², resulting in a shortening of time from thirty minutes to 3 minutes, thus ending the suffering of the patient and the doctor when performing this type of operation.