Cornea confocal microscopy: utilities and perspectives

Abstract

The cornea is the ocular refractive medium with the greatest refractive power of the eye. The study of it is of vital importance for the diagnosis and follow-up of ophthalmological diseases with the aim of achieving high standards of visual acuity in our patients. Confocal microscopy of the cornea allows in-depth study of it, quickly, safely, painlessly, obtaining high-resolution images of the corneal sublayers. This chapter summarizes the procedure for performing corneal confocal microscopy, the normal characteristics of the tissue with real images of our patients, as well as a brief explanation of the main applications of this technology in the study of corneal dystrophies (keratoconus), in refractive surgery, corneal transplantation, infectious keratitis, glaucoma filtration bulla, among other topics.