Violet June: The Global Keratoconus Awareness Campaign

摘要

Refractive surgery has led to tremendous advances in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, which have improved our ability to treat different conditions, such as keratoconus and ectatic corneal diseases. Different paradigms were broken [ ], and paradoxes were established regarding when, how, and why to indicate surgical procedures in these patients [ ]. This progress is related to the fact that the prevalence and incidence of such diseases have increased, related to the higher diagnostic sensitivity of multimodal corneal imaging, and also due to environmental or genetic factors [ , ]. For example, a study involving tomography with rotational Scheimpflug (Pentacam HR, Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) by Torres-Netto et al. found a 4.79% prevalence of keratoconus in a prospective study involving 522 pediatric patients (average age, 16.8 ± 4.2, ranging from 6 to 21 years) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [ ]. This contrasts the classic prevalence of 54.5 per 100,000 inhabitants reported in 1986 [ ]. It is important to recognize that treating diseased corneas for vision rehabilitation is a whole different world from elective refractive procedures aiming to reduce the dependence on optical correction from spectacles or contact lenses [ ]. In such a scenario, the education of patients and their families is fundamental to achieving success. In addition, understanding the disease and the rationale for the treatment enables patients to make conscious decisions and to have realistic expectations.