
Why Corneal Thickness Matters in Laser Surgery
For laser eye surgery to succeed, the cornea, the transparent front surface of the eye, has to be thick enough for the operation to proceed safely.…
Corneal rings are a treatment method developed for keratoconus patients. In this treatment, small semicircular transparent rings are placed into the cornea. Since these rings are placed in the eye by tunnelling with Femtosecond laser, the procedure is completed in a very short time and the tunnel is made precisely; complications such as the ring shifting, coming out or infection can still occur. These rings are not noticeable from the outside and most importantly, they are not felt to be in the eye like contact lenses, so they are very comfortable for the patient. The rings, which can only be removed by the doctor at any time, do not leave any permanent traces that will affect the vision since they are not placed in the visual centre.
The rings, which have different thickness types, are preferably placed according to the degree of keratoconus disease. The targeted treatment in corneal ring implantation is to return the central part of the cornea to its normal anatomical position. Corneal ring implantation is performed in 2 stages. Firstly, the tunnel is opened with Femtosecond laser. This process takes about 15 seconds. Then the rings are placed through the tunnel created. The whole operation takes about 10-15 minutes per eye. 
The first examination is very important for your ophthalmologist to decide on surgery. In this examination, various measurements are made for corneal thickness, corneal structure, your eye prescription and eye pressure. If you wear contact lenses, you should stop wearing them before the examination: soft lenses 5 days and hard (rigid) lenses 2 weeks beforehand. Thus, your measurement results will be more reliable. You should not use aspirin-style blood thinners within 3 days before treatment. If you have other medications (blood pressure, diabetes, etc.), you can use these medications without interruption.
During your postoperative period, you do not need any restriction from your daily life, only the use of drops is required for a few weeks.
During the 48 hours after the surgery, you may have pain or discomfort depending on your body. You may have blurred vision, watery eyes or light sensitivity after surgery, even for a short time. Such visual complaints are very normal during the healing process and this situation will decrease day by day. After the surgery, it is very important to go to the controls at the intervals requested by your doctor.
Corneal ring implantation surgery price varies depending on the underlying cause and the operation to be performed. The treatment plan to be created by our specialist ophthalmologist depending on the detailed examination results may vary from person to person.
An intracorneal ring is considered for patients whose cornea has become irregular enough that glasses no longer give useful vision and who cannot tolerate rigid contact lenses. It is used most often in keratoconus and, less frequently, in irregularities that follow laser surgery.
The cornea has to be above a certain thickness and still clear. If it has lost its clarity, the ring will not deliver the expected benefit and other methods are assessed instead.
The procedure is done under local anaesthesia with drops and takes around 10-15 minutes per eye. A channel is created inside the cornea at a depth set by the measurements, and thin, transparent ring segments are placed into that channel.
The rings stay within the corneal tissue. They are neither visible from the outside nor felt. You go home the same day, and the first check-up is the following day.
Yes. Because an intracorneal ring is placed without removing corneal tissue, it can be taken out or exchanged if needed. That sets it apart from methods in which tissue is removed.
When the ring is removed, the cornea largely returns to the shape it had before the procedure. This reversibility is one of the factors your surgeon weighs when discussing which method to choose.
The two methods do different jobs. An intracorneal ring aims to improve vision by correcting the shape of the cornea, while crosslinking does not change the shape at all; it halts the progression of the disease.
In a patient whose keratoconus is progressing, the two are often planned together: progression is stopped first, then vision is corrected. The order and the timing are set by the measurements of the eye.
Corneal rings are placed in a tunnel created with a femtosecond laser, and the risks are low. Most conditions that could arise can be treated or reversed:
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For laser eye surgery to succeed, the cornea, the transparent front surface of the eye, has to be thick enough for the operation to proceed safely.…
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