Cornea

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber and provides most of an eye's optical power http://www.eyeglossary.net/#C. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light and consequently helps the eye to focus. The cornea gives a larger contribution to the total refraction than the lens, but whereas the curvature of the lens can be adjusted to "tune" the focus, the curvature of the cornea is fixed.

Surgical procedures involving the cornea

Various refractive eye surgery techniques change the shape of the cornea in order to reduce the need for glasses or otherwise improve the refractive state of the eye. In the techniques used today, parts of the cornea are removed with lasers.

Related Topics:
Refractive eye surgery - Laser

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If the corneal stroma has developed opaque patches known as leukomas, a cornea of a deceased donor can be transplanted. Because there are few blood vessels in the cornea, there are also few problems with rejection of the new cornea.

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There are also synthetic corneas in development. Most are merely plastic inserts, but there are also some made of plastics that encourage the eye tissue to grow into the synthetic cornea making it a full replacement.

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