CAIRS Treatment
Corneal Allogenic Intrastromal Ring Segments
CAIRS is an exciting and new revolutionary treatment option for keratoconus!
A CAIRS segment in the eye shortly after surgery. Over time it incorporates in the cornea and is not visible with the naked eye. This patient went from legal blindness due to the keratoconus to legal driving vision without glasses!*
*Individual results may vary
CAIRS
CAIRS (Corneal Allogenic Intrastromal Ring Segments) is an exciting and new revolutionary treatment option for keratoconus where carefully prepared corneal transplant tissue strips are cut into segments and implanted into the keratoconic cornea.
There is no better cornea on the market than your own. Hence the reason why we at Crystal Eye and Laser Centre endeavour to always preserve your own cornea when we treat keratoconus.
Keratoconus is a condition of the cornea where it thins out and start to bulge and steepen giving the patient a conical shaped cornea which affects the vision. Keratoconus can be managed with spectacles in the early stages but will require hard contact lenses and even surgery for the patient to see. CAIRS solves both the thinning out and steepening of the keratoconic cornea by bulking up the thinned out area and flattening the steepening of the keratoconic cornea. CAIRS improves vision significantly and regularises the conical shape cornea. It also improves the overall strength and rigidity of your cornea.
How Does CAIRS Work?
In CAIRS, a laser is used to create a ring-shaped tunnels in your cornea. The tunnel creation is completely painless and the patient does not lose any vision. It takes approximately 9 seconds to create these tunnels with the laser. Following the laser, a carefully prepared ring-shaped corneal tissue is carefully inserted into the tunnel created in your cornea.
A small, similar shaped ring of donor corneal tissue is threaded into the tunnel in your cornea. This ring of corneal tissue improves the strength, rigidity and overall shape of your cornea. The segments causes a flattening and regularisation of the cornea which strengthens the cornea and can improve vision with and without glasses.
Benefits of CAIRS
Much Greater Effect
Plastic rings are implanted at a depth of 80-85% due to the extremely high risk of extrusion. Deeper implantation has a much less flattening effect on the shape of the cornea. CAIRS segments are implanted much shallower giving you a much greater flattening effect.
Larger Range of patients with keratoconus
Due to much less concern of segments extruding in CAIRS, more severe cases of keratoconus can undergo CAIRS who would otherwise not be a candidate for plastic rings. In the past, their only option was to have a more invasive corneal transplant resulting in poor vision that can only be corrected partially with thick glasses and uncomfortable hard contact lenses.
CAIRS segments can be customised
As we are using natural tissue, it can be precisely customised to the patient's unique keratoconic corneal shape giving Dr Lourens more control over the effect for better outcomes. As a standard Dr Lourens customises each and every segment to the patient's exact needs to improve their vision and stabilise the cornea.
How will my vision be after the CAIRS surgery?
Most patients notice a huge improvement within days. In other patients the vision outcome depends on how bad your vision was to begin with. We expect stabilisation after 3 months. The effect of the CAIRS ring segments should be mostly stable and new glasses can be obtained. Most patients notice the vast improvement in the vision at this stage. Another benefit is the fact that the new spectacle prescription would be significantly reduced and the quality of vision as expected to be much better. The poor quality night vision and streaks of light will be significantly reduced and in most cases this appears completely. This is in contrast with plastic rings which can actually worsen night time vision and light streaks.
Can I have any other procedures to improve my vision after CAIRS?
Most of the time CAIRS is the initial step in managing a patient’s keratoconus by bulking up the thinned out areas and flattening the steep bulging cornea. It can then be followed up by a further strengthening procedure known as corneal cross-linking to make sure that the effect that was obtained by the CAIRS procedure is permanent. Customised surface laser procedures can also be performed to further enhance the visual outcomes. Surface laser vision correction procedures has been shown to be a very safe option in patients who have undergone corneal cross-linking procedures.
Interested in CAIRS? We’re here to help!
If you or a loved one is struggling with keratoconus, get in touch and let's see what we can do to get their vision back on track!
Clinic Hours
Monday to Friday 8am - 5pm