Patient Diagnosed with Keratoconus 60 Years Ago Receives GVR Scleral Lens

This is a photo of me with Guillermo, who suffers from an advanced case of keratoconus in both eyes but with a left eye with an extremely steep and thinned out cornea. Guillermo was diagnosed with keratoconus over 60 years ago. Over these many years he was fit with many different types of hard and soft contact lenses, “piggy back” lenses and hybrid lens designs both in this country and elsewhere. For 50 years, Guillermo suffered from discomfort, often pain, along with blurred vision with all of these lenses. About 10 years ago, we fit Guillermo with GVR Scleral lenses which have allowed him to see clearly (20/25 with his right eye and 20/40 with his left eye) and comfortably with all day lens wear. For the past 10 years, Guillermo’s vision and eyes have remained stable. The first image below our photograph was taken with a technology known as “Optical Coherence Tomography” or simply “OCT”. In this OCT image, the top 2 curved lines are the front and back surfaces of the scleral lens. The space between the back surface of the lens and the front surface of the cornea is filled with saline solution. The large curved gray structure is the keratoconic cornea. Note how steep the cornea is and how thin it is at the apex. A “normal” cornea is about 550 microns think. This cornea at the apex is about 120 microns thick. Prior to visiting our office, for about 40 years, Guillermo visited 7 world famous eye institutions seeking treatment for his eyes and vision. All of the doctors at these institutions suggested that he receive a corneal transplant on this eye. The last image is a profile photo of Guillermo’s left cornea. Because this cornea is so steep, the center of gravity is too far out for this eye to support a conventional gas permeable lens. A scleral lens is the only lens technology that will allow a patient with an eye like Guillermo’s to function with clear and comfortable vision once again. This technology is explained at: www.sclerallens.com.