Fuch’s Dystrophy Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment

What is Fuch’s dystrophy?

It is basically a disorder that affects your cornea of the eye. Moreover, it can lead eye discomfort, cornea inflammation, cloudy vision and glare. Typically, it affects both the eyes worsening your vision slowly over years. Many individuals with the disorder tend to suffer from its mild form, thus do not actually observe visible changes in their vision. Self-care measures and medication can help ease the symptoms of Fuch’s dystrophy. However, in its advanced stage when the patient loses the eyesight, cornea transplant surgery is the mere option to restore the eyesight.

What are the symptoms if Fuch’s dystrophy?

As Fuch’s dystrophy progresses, its symptoms affect both the eyes and can include:

Cornea that seems hazy or cloudy.
Tiny, painful blisters on the cornea’s surface.
Sensitivity to light.
Glare.
Distorted vision.
Blurred vision which can slowly worsen.
Problem seeing during night time.

What causes Fuch’s dystrophy?

Usually, endothelial cells inside the cornea help to maintain fluid balance within your cornea. Furthermore, it helps prevent your cornea against swelling, whilst keeping it clear. However, with the disorder, endothelial cells gradually become unable to function appropriately or die off, resulting in accumulation of fluid within your cornea. Such causes blurred vision and corneal thickening. The disorder can also be inherited.

What are the risk factors of Fuch’s dystrophy?

Certain factors that add to the chances of developing the disorder include:

Over 50 years of age.
If Fuch’s dystrophy runs in the family.
If you are a female, since the disorder is more commonly observed in women comparatively to men.

How is Fuch’s dystrophy diagnosed?

The doctor can suggest the following tests in order to diagnose the disorder. The tests also tend to measure the thickness, clarity and shape of your cornea:

Corneal cell count.
Corneal thickness.
Corneal pressure test.
Visual test.

In addition to this, the doctor will then work on to determine what stage of Fuch’s dystrophy the patient is suffering from. For the purpose, he or she will examine the eye using a slit lamp.

How is Fuch’s dystrophy treated?

Certain self-care measures and nonsurgical treatments can help ease the symptoms of the disorder. However, in case of suffering from a severe form of Fuch’s dystrophy, the doctor can recommend surgery.

Therapies and medications:

Eye medication: ointments or eye drops for decreasing the fluid amount in the cornea.
Soft contact lenses: they act like a bandage for easing your pain by means of smoothing out the swelling on the eye surface.

Surgery: the doctor can suggest surgery in case the patient is suffering from an advance stage of Fuch’s dystrophy, which involves vision loss. Surgery option can help restoring the vision whilst makes an individual free from its symptoms for many years after the surgery. Few surgical options for treating advanced Fuch’s dystrophy include: