Band Shaped Keratopathy : Causes and Treatment | Removal of Calcium Deposits on Cornea | आँखों की सफेदी का इलाज

Band Shaped Keratopathy : Causes and Treatment | Removal of Calcium Deposits on Cornea | आँखों की सफेदी का इलाज

Band Keratopathy, In this video, Dr. Anin Sethi from Mirchia’s Laser Eye Clinic: A unit of Dr Agarwal Eye Hospital talks about Band Shaped Keratopathy or calcific deposits in the cornea. 

What is calcific band keratopathy or Band shaped keratopathy?

One can’t call it a disease; rather, it indicates many diseases in which calcium deposition occurs in the cornea. It starts from the black eyeball’s edge and reaches the centre. It reduces the clarity of the cornea or eyeball and can reduce eyesight. Various reasons can lead to band-shaped keratopathy. 

What are the causes of Band shaped keratopathy?

Certain bodily diseases may result in calcium deposition. When there is an imbalance of calcium and phosphorus inside the body, or if the concentration of calcium inside the body is more, irrespective of the reasons, or if blood has an over-concentration of calcium, it may deposit in different tissues. And among many is the cornea. In diseases like hyperparathyroidism, the parathyroid gland is overactive, increasing the calcium concentration in the blood. Eventually, it starts depositing in the cornea. The second reason is kidney failure or kidney disease. An imbalance of electrolytes like calcium, sodium, and potassium in kidney-related conditions results in calcium deposition in different tissues.

In addition, there is a form of arthritis in which there can be deposits of calcium in the cornea. Also, there are certain local causes and a few eye conditions that may cause deposition of calcium in the cornea, like Uveitis in which there is swelling in eye tissues. Apart from this, those who had retina operation in which doctors insert silicon oil in the eye may have calcium deposits in the cornea. The third cause is eye dryness; Chronic dryness can cause the deposition of calcium in the upper areas of the eyeball. Hence there are many causes of calcium deposits in the cornea.  

What is the treatment of calcium deposition or band-shaped keratopathy?

The first part of the treatment is to identify the cause; if there is any bodily cause, that might increase calcium concentration in the blood, like hyperparathyroidism, a few forms of arthritis or the presence of kidney diseases. So doctors can control deposition by controlling the disease. But it’s often seen that calcium deposits do not regress entirely. Rather some part of a deposition is left even after complete healing of the illness. Another mode of treatment is debridement. By debridement, doctors use an instrument to scrape off the calcium deposits, and further, apply a compound, EDTA over the cornea, which absorbs the calcium. So this is one of the beneficial treatments and is often known as EDTA chelation. Doctors remove calcium from the cornea through this procedure. But if any bodily disease or eye condition continues, these deposits may reappear even after the treatment. 

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