The Cornea and Vision

It's been a very long time, yes i know and i must begin by rendering an apology for my absence, work took me places where i could not be with you or continue to educate us on the eye as well as getting my assigned duties done on the blockchain, this the leaders already, however, i feel it is only fair that i keep us all in the loop because i know that many of you enjoy my lessons about the eye.

So, if you missed me, i am back and it is good thing because we get to learn again, knowing more about the eye and doing our utmost best to protect it. Before my long absence we learnt or talked about the retina and the macula and the important role or function they play in our seeing, i am taking us through the various important parts that contribute immensely to vision and so today we would be talking about another such important organ and i do hope you are ready to learn and enjoy.

Stay with me, ask all your questions it doesn't necessarily have to be only about this particular writeup, anything concerning your eye you can come to me and we will find a solution to it, i look forward to your reviews, now without much ado, let's talk about the cornea.

The cornea is one of the most important organs involved in vision, it contributes more than half to light focusing properly within our eye to enable us to perceive objects at far or near right. It is that transparent layer that lies on your eye what most people consider as the black part of the eye when looking just into someone's eye.

The cornea being transparent allows the colored structures after it such as the iris to be seen and so when you look at someone and you are able to tell that their eyes are brown, or grey or blue, it is because you are seeing through the transparency of the cornea and the blackness used by many to describe it is because the pupils are are just a whole with darkness of the inside of the eye.

The cornea has 5 layers with diverse functions that come together to contribute to its integrity. One important thing we all have to know about the cornea is that it is extremely sensitive, perhaps one of the most sensitive organs in the entire body, because of which any amount of damage to the eye that affects the cornea results in extreme pain, one that is mostly unbearable ad would send you to the Optometrist right away. The transparency of the cornea is very important in allow light's passage into the eye.

Any obstruction in the cornea would directly impede your vision and may be irreversible, damage to the cornea could result in loss of vision even if all other structures are fine and are in great or healthy condition. The cornea can easily scar when its damage when the right treatment is not administered and so please do not sit back on any trauma to the eye because scar tissues once formed can't be reversed in the cornea and vision lost becomes inevitable. Also, be wary of penetrating injuries as damages reaching the 3rd layer would inevitably scar no matter the management.

The cornea obtains its nourishment from within the structures behind it, from the aqueous humor, and from outside of itself, this is to ensure that it is avascular since blood vessels being in it would affect its transparency which would directly also affect your vision. There are some conditions or situations that force or promote the growth of blood vessels on the cornea, when this starts happening and care is not taken then vision loss becomes an inevitability.

Further Reading

_{DelMonte DW, Kim T. Anatomy and physiology of the cornea. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2011 Mar;37(3):588-98. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrs.2010.12.037. PMID: 21333881.}

_{Patel S, Tutchenko L. The refractive index of the human cornea: A review. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2019 Oct;42(5):575-580. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2019.04.018. Epub 2019 May 5. PMID: 31064697.}

_{Cintron C, Schneider H, Kublin C. Corneal scar formation. Exp Eye Res. 1973 Nov 11;17(3):251-9. doi: 10.1016/0014-4835(73)90176-0. PMID: 4271803.}

_{Belknap EB. Corneal Emergencies. Top Companion Anim Med. 2015 Sep;30(3):74-80. doi: 10.1053/j.tcam.2015.07.006. Epub 2015 Jul 9. PMID: 26494498.}