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Can Dry Eye Cause Keratoconus?


Is dry eye a reason that launches the boat of keratoconus?  

In recent years when the pandemic ended, many new keratoconus patients sent to us by corneal specialists just had their diagnosis after the pandemic.  In the Philippines, community locked down was more than a year, and kids had more than a year long of online classes. And this meant prolonged hours of non-stop classes, surfing the net, gaming and watching Netflix. 

Some facts:

  1. Patients with keratoconus have  have lower tear volumes and more severe dry eye symptoms compared to age-matched healthy controls.
  2. The prevalence of DED after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was 44.1% which was significantly higher than the 18.7% before the COVID-19 outbreak. 
  3. Eye itchiness is one of the most common symptoms of dry eyes. 3 This would then cause eye rubbing. 

We know that for keratoconus patients, eye rubbing is an associated risk factor. Therefore, any condition that may trigger this should be prevented. Detecting dry eyes early and managing the condition would be beneficial to patients who are genetically predisposed to keratoconus.


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