Feeling Cornea

Perhaps it is my bias being in the medical field, but I feel that there is a lot of information in the world about diabetic foot disease. I assume, based on this, that we are all familiar with the idea that decreased sensation in the foot can lead to non-healing wounds and other complications of the feet.

Being a cornea fellowship trained ophthalmologist, I feel like contributing to the discourse about similar processes in the eye. Corneal sensation is a very important aspect of corneal health, as there is a litany of problems that occur in a neurotrophic cornea, i.e. a cornea that has inadequate sensation. One of the big problems we deal with are scratches of the eye that don’t heal properly due to the inadequate sensation. A very common cause of decreased corneal sensation are herpes virus infections of the eye, as the virus invades the nerve root.

Fortunately, most people who have decreased corneal sensation do not have absent corneal sensation, and lubrication of the eye surface helps prevent some of the complications of decreased corneal sensation. As ophthalmologists, we love for patients to lubricate their eyes!