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What Is Keratoconus? A New Approach to a Not So Rare Disease

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Keratoconus

Part of the book series: Essentials in Ophthalmology ((ESSENTIALS))

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Abstract

Keratoconus is today a classic topic in ophthalmology. Its history is associated to a background of a corneal disease with a blinding potential and no hope for treatment. It is only since the late 1950s that contact lenses have become a partial solution for the visual loss for some cases of keratoconus while other approaches were nonexisting. Those patients diagnosed with keratoconus had the same category as any corneal dystrophy with no potential treatment and no therapeutic recommendations to perform. The patients had no hope for the future and could not do anything about preventing its progress or being informed about the potential long-term complications or any consistent and reliable therapeutic approach.

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Jorge L. Alió declares that he has no conflict of interest. No human or animal studies were carried out by the author for this chapter.

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Correspondence to Jorge L. Alió M.D., Ph.D., F.E.B.O. .

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Alió, J.L. (2017). What Is Keratoconus? A New Approach to a Not So Rare Disease. In: Alió, J. (eds) Keratoconus. Essentials in Ophthalmology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43881-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43881-8_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43879-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43881-8

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