Eye Rubbing and Keratoconus

Henriquez M.A.; Izquierdo L., Jr. · Keratoconus: A Comprehensive Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment (2022) · DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-85361-7_5

Resumen

Keratoconus (KC) is a multifactorial disease for which genetic, biomechanical, and environmental components are involved. The knowledge of biomechanical component of the cornea, together with the associated inflammatory factor, has aroused great interest in the scientific community regarding the role of eye rubbing in the genesis and/or progression of keratoconus. Eye rubbing is a common physiological response induced by several facts: fatigue, dust or allergen exposure, contact lens wear, stress, inflammation, among others. Studies carried out by our group described in this chapter have shown that the impact of eye rubbing in keratoconus eyes is different from healthy eyes, probably due to their previously altered and lower biomechanics metrics, and therefore should be widely prohibited in keratoconus eyes. The chapter also describes a way of measuring the mechanical trauma induced by eye rubbing in the ocular surface through a snake cell protein, which is a nuclear morphologic alteration of the conjunctival epithelium considered an indicator of mechanical stress on the ocular surface such as eye rubbing; discusses the presence of this alteration in both keratoconus eyes and allergic eye rubbers; and suggests that the eye-rubbing event by itself is not a cause of KC; however, its association as a risk factor is not questioned. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos