Keratoglobus is a degenerative non-inflammatory

Inflammation

Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...

 disorder of the eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

 in which structural changes within the cornea

Cornea

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light, with the cornea accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is...

 cause it to become extremely thin and change to a more globular shape than its normal gradual curve

Curve

In mathematics, a curve is, generally speaking, an object similar to a line but which is not required to be straight...

. It causes corneal thinning, primarily at the margins, resulting in a spherical, slightly enlarged eye.

It is sometimes equated with "megalocornea".

Epidemiology

It is a much rarer condition than keratoconus

Keratoconus

Keratoconus , is a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve....

, which is the most common dystrophy

Dystrophy

Dystrophy is any condition of abnormal development, often denoting the degeneration of muscles.-Types:* Muscular dystrophy* Duchenne muscular dystrophy* Becker's muscular dystrophy* Reflex neurovascular dystrophy* Retinal dystrophy* Conal dystrophy...

 of the cornea. Similar to keratoconus

Keratoconus

Keratoconus , is a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve....

 it is typically diagnosed in the patient's adolescent

Adolescence

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...

 years and attains its most severe state in the twenties and thirties.

Pathophysiology

Keratoglobus is a little-understood disease with an uncertain cause, and its progression following diagnosis

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...

 is unpredictable. If afflicting both eyes, the deterioration in vision can affect the patient's ability to drive a car or read normal print. It does not however lead to blindness

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 per se.

Prognosis

Keratoglobus continues to be a somewhat mysterious disease, but it can be successfully managed with a variety of clinical and surgical techniques. The patient is at risk for globe perforation because the thinned out cornea is extremely weak.

Surgical treatment

Further progression of the disease usually leads to a need for surgery because of extreme thinning of the cornea. Primarily, large size penetrating keratoplasty has been advocated.

Recent additions of techniques specifically for keratoglobus include the "tuck procedure", whereby a 12 mm corneo-scleral donor graft is taken and trimmed at its outer edges. A host pocket is formed at the limbal margin and the donor tissue is "tucked" into the host pocket.