Symptoms and dangers of ulcerative keratitis

Our eyeballs are covered with a layer of membrane, the cornea, which protects the eyeballs. Although it is thin, it can prevent most foreign matter such as dust and germs from entering the eyeballs. However, when the cornea becomes inflamed, it cannot perform its normal functions and may also ulcerate, forming ulcerative keratitis, accompanied by some eye symptoms, causing eye diseases.

1. What are the symptoms of corneal ulcer?

In the early stages of the disease, the eyes have obvious irritation symptoms, such as fear of light, tearing, eye pain, and grayish white spots or flaky infiltrations on the cornea. In severe cases, the above symptoms are more obvious, the eyes cannot be opened, the eye pain is unbearable, and vision is reduced.

The bulbar conjunctiva is purple-red and congested, and the condition becomes more severe the closer it is to the cornea. Grayish-white necrotic tissue can be seen falling off on the surface of the cornea, forming ulcers. If the bacteria are highly toxic and combined with chronic dacryocystitis or reduced systemic resistance, the ulcer will spread to the surrounding or deep layers, forming anterior chamber abscess and even causing corneal perforation, causing serious damage to vision.

2. Harmful manifestations of corneal ulcer

Corneal disease is a type of ocular surface disease that poses the greatest threat to visual function. If it becomes increasingly serious, it can lead to decreased vision or even blindness, i.e. corneal blindness. Corneal blindness ranks second among causes of blindness and low vision, second only to cataracts.

3. Treatment of corneal ulcer

Corneal disease is the second leading cause of blindness. There are about 4 million blind people due to corneal disease in my country. Most of these patients can regain their sight through corneal transplantation. Corneal transplant surgeries mainly include penetrating keratoplasty, lamellar and full-thickness keratoplasty, total corneal transplantation, and corneal transplantation combined with cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation, among other difficult surgical methods.

The cornea is very transparent, has no blood vessels, and has a relatively mild immunological rejection reaction. Therefore, corneal transplantation has the highest success rate among organ transplants.