Band keratopathy is a corneal disease derived from the appearance of calcium on the central cornea. This is an example of metastatic calcification, which by definition, occurs in the presence of hypercalcemia.

Causes

Causes can include trauma such as surgery.

Some eye drops can also cause band keratopathy, especially PV Carpine (aka Pilocapine).

Hypercalcemia develops in patients with renal failure, sarcoidosis and certain malignancies.

Treatments

The calcium can be scraped off the cornea or removed with a laser.
This can restore sight, but it can take a number of months for normal vision to return as the cornea will be damaged during the operation.
This cannot be repeated too many times as it would make the cornea thinner and thinner.

External links

• Picture at Columbia University
  Columbia University
  Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...