What is corneal blindness?
Cornea is the transparent, outermost layer of the eye and is used as a refractive medium for image formation. Tears on the other hand nourishes cornea by keeping eyes clean and moist. With age corneal clouding and corneal scar can be caused by inflammatory diseases, trauma or infection and may result in blindness eventually.

In general we believe that eye diseases like cataract or glaucoma are more of concern but if we check the facts with WHO, corneal blindness constitutes as much as 5% of total blindness. Ocular trauma and ulcerations are also cause of 1.5 to 2.0 million new cases every year.

You may suffer corneal blindness at any age and the common causes are eye trauma, vitamin A deficiency, as an after effect of bacterial, viral, fungal infections and congenital diseases or sometimes home remedies causes more eye damage then benefit.

Patients often experience symptoms like tearing, photosensitivity, eye pain, blurred vision, glare, redness and a feeling that something is in the eye.

Regular eye examination can prevent us from vision loss. In routine visit, your eye doctor takes complete medical history and diagnostic aids like slit lamp, keratometry and corneal topography helps in diagnosing corneal defects.

Corneal blindness can be prevented by reducing or eliminating exposure to harsh conditions. Wearing hats and eye glasses to reduce UV rays exposure. Use of lubricating eye drops in case of dry eyes and regular visit to eye doctor in case of symptoms persist.

With recent advances corneal blindness can be treated with corneal transplantation/grafting. Corneal transplant is a surgical procedure where the damaged cornea is removed and replaced by a healthy cornea from a deceased donor.

There is little awareness among population about cornea transplant and cornea donation. Initiatives to educate people regarding eye donation, treatment modalities, rehabilitation centers and eye banks plays an important role to balance the need of cornea transplant and eye donation.