Keratoconus Salt Lake City - Dr. Phil Hoopes, Jr.

We offer two different surgical options to address keratoconus at our Salt Lake City office.

DR. PHIL HOOPES, JR.: Keratoconus is a medical condition of the eye, where, over time, the eye progressively gets thinner, on its own. And, when it gets to a certain thin point, the eye will begin to warp or distort. Because of the thinning and the distortion, LASIK is not an option for people who have Keratoconus. Traditionally, these patients have to wear either glasses, or ridged contact lenses. Once those options don’t provide them with comfortable and adequate vision, then surgical options do exist. Traditionally, the only surgery for Keratoconus has been a cornea transplant. Cornea transplants are highly successful, and are the most common organ transplanted tissue in the United States. For people who have early Keratoconus, there is now a non-invasive surgery called Intacs, which can help to return some of the normal structure to the eye, without doing a full thickness corneal transplant. This may allow people to wear glasses or contacts again, where that had no longer been an option for them.