Kerasoft Information

[KiaZ]

Hi everyone here, I found this forum googling.
I'm almost 29 years old, I write from Italy and have discovered keratoconus about 2/3 moths ago.
I'm an active person and agonist sport praticer, so I can't use classic RGP lenses due to their instability. At the moment I'm going on with soft daily disposable however my left eye vision is quite poor, meanwhile right is ok because the cone doesn't affect vision.
My ophtometrist told me that the only good solution in my case would be a reverse piggyback with Rose K as RGP and a silicon hydrogel extended wear soft lens over the RGP.
However I searched all over the net and found the kerasoft .
Is there someone using it ? How is like ? It's realy like a soft one ? I heard about oxygen trasmission problems with kerasoft, is it true ?
In italy is aviabile, but it's difficult to find both a lens fitter knowing it (there's none in my town) and patients using it.
I'm extremly interested in having just one lens avoiding to have 2 cleaning systems ... also I'm often asked to go away for work and I need something simple (1 or 2 solutions at worst).

I hope someone can help me.

Sorry for my bad english.

[Andrew MacLean]

Ciao e benvenuto alla tribuna

No need to aplogiuze for bad English.

I did try the Kerasoft for a bit, but could not tolerate it, so gave up. Part of the problem with soft lenses is that they are pushed out of shape by the cone, so that the Kerasoft may not give as good correction as an RGP.

the reverse piggyback sounds like a really good idea. You would sacrifice the very good gas exchange that the RGP allows, but you should have the very good corrected vision with enhanced stability.

Let us know how you get on.

Soggiorno in tocco
il vostro sempre

Andrew

[GarethB]

Hi Kiaz,

Welcome to the forum.

I tried the Kerasoft lenses, but despite the initial fitting being able to get good fitting and vision, whent hat was made into a proper lens, the lens just would not centre itself correctly.

Due to the poor oxygen transfer my cornea would become waterlogged and go cloudy, I also had a reaction to the solutions to clean the lenses too.

I have found the RGP lenses to be fine with sporting activities, if the MSA and FIA rules allowed I could compete in Motorsport with them, but swimming is fine with a swim mask and in the past I hace played squash with lenses in and I uses sport goggles for that to protect the eye from an eye ball sized ball. Many years ago I cycled alot and had cycling goggles too.

Before a major back injury I played rugby when I was first diagnosed and rarely did a lens pop out if I got tackled.

[KiaZ]

Hi Gareth, Hi Andrew, thanks for answering me.

I'll give kerasoft a try, also becasue ten years ago I was simply suffering from myopia (about -8 diopters) and astigmatism (about -1 diopter) and I used soft toric lenses that had a simialar composition/water content/DK as the kerasoft , so I feel I can wear this lens.

Regarding RGPs, I'm a snowboarder and I make jumps and 180°/360° rotations : my eye doctor has a snowboarder son and told me to avoid RGPs in my case because they probably will pop out .. my ophotometrist too is quite usure about using pure RGPs in that case and as I said he suggested me a "reverse piggyback" while waiting for the upcoming Synergeyes KC which will be worth a try.

Do you know any other hybrid lens other than kerasoft and CIBA SoftPerms ?

[GarethB]

Kiaz,

I think the current down hill skiing champion is Swiss and has had two grafts. Before that he was still competing at a high level.

Although I am not allowed to compete cometitively in motorsport, I am allowed to prepare and set up the cars. When I have had the odd excurion into the tyre wall wearing my RGP's my lenses have never popped out. You end up blinking so quick the chances of impact making lenses popout is remote.

The bigest accident I have had wearing lenses was head on at about 105mph (170 kph) and my lenses never budged. Move my eyes rpidly from left to right and I will blink the lens out!

[Eddie S]

Hi Kia,

I wear SoftPerms which are very similar to Kerasoft lenses in that that they have a soft 'skirt' and a hard RGP center.

Despite a number of optometrists saying that my eyes would suffer in these lenses because of the limited oxygen flow they are the only lenses that my eyes (so far) have not rejected or felt serious discomfort with.

I'd be careful though if you're selecting these lenses purely for their likelyhood to stay in your eyes - if I'm out cycling I find my left lens tends to get a little dry and then make a jump for it - luckily most of the time I am wearing shades and they act as a safety net, but I have lost a lens in this way.

Having said this though I cant praise SoftPerm lenses enough - to the point where my KC hardly bothers me because they are so comfy.

If you do try them and get discomfort, try different lens solutions before giving up on them - I found the solutions (I guess because they are soft) make a big difference in your tolerance to them.

Hope this helps.

Ed

[KiaZ]

Well, I have reserved my kerasoft trial for next tuesday .
I hope it will be working for me .... if not I'll try something else.

[Lisa Nixon]

I had no problems with kerasoft lenses, wore them for 3 years or so until my sight deteriorated to the extent where I needed grafts. I used to put Opti tears eye re wetting drops in when I remembered to (very rarely)! Wore the lenses from 9 am til 11 pm most days. They are worth a try. Good luck

[KiaZ]

Well, the day after tomorrow I'll go in Milan to try these kerasoft.

Meanwhile, I decided to follow the "reverse piggyback" way too, first of all because it's better to have an opthometrist near home, then because I would like to comapare the kerasoft with a standard RGP.
So friday I went to my opthometrist and decided to try: the first step was to found the RGP then when having the final lens we will evalutate the opportunity of reverse piggybacking. But first it's important to have that hard lens.
Fitting was less painful than what I thought, and the third lens worked fine. Of course they aren't confortable as soft lenses but not so difficult to tolerate. Whith that lens I read almost 7/10, and the opthometrist said that it's only possibile to improve vision more.
Now I have something to compare to ... I hope kerasoft will work the same with soft lens confort !