Astigmatism
Blurry Vision
Astigmatism – sometimes mispronounced as “a stigmatism” – is blurred vision resulting from a misshaped cornea. It differs from myopia (nearsighted) and hyperopia (farsighted) in that it can effect either your near or far vision, or even both at the same time. Astigmatism is usually inherited, but often gets worse over time. It may also result from injury to the cornea or from a disease called keratoconus, a thinning of the cornea over time.
Symptoms of Astigmatism
Symptoms can range from slightly blurred vision to headaches and extreme blurry vision at all distances. It can also accompany either myopia or hyperopia.
Astigmatism Explained
People with Astigmatism have an oval-shaped, or football-shaped cornea, as opposed to a normal spherical, or baseball-shaped cornea. Most astigmatic corneas have two curves, a steeper curve and a flatter one. Therefore, light focuses on more than one point in the eye, causing blurred vision at near and/or far distances.
Treatments for Astigmatism
Because of the oblong shape of an astigmatic cornea, some contacts will not work correctly, and may even further damage the eye. However, these days even soft contacts are made to compensate for astigmatism. Eye-glasses are often prescribed as a solution for mild to moderate astigmatism.
Many patients choose refractive surgery to treat astigmatism. The main refractive surgeries performed for this vision disorder are LASIK, PRK and CK.
LASIK and PRK use the eximer laser to reshape your eye by removing corneal tissue. The most notable difference is that Photo Refractive Keratectomy ( PRK ) removes tissue from the surface of the eye, while LASIK surgery removes tissue from under the surface, below a thin “flap” cut into the eye by either microkeratome or intralase. The flap covers the affected area, which promotes faster healing and less scar tissue.
CK (over 40)
Conductive Keratoplasty (CK) is a proprietary technology that has FDA approval for the correction of hyperopia and presbyopia. However, it is sometimes used to treat astigmatism in patients over the age of forty. CK uses heat from radio frequency waves to shrink collagen fibers in order to reshape the cornea.
Refractive surgery may or may not be an option for your astigmatism. Consult with an ophthalmologist before considering any form of treatment for blurred vision.
