Corneal Dystrophies

Corneal dystrophies are a group of inherited, usually bilateral, symmetric, slowly progressive disorders affecting the cornea. Traditionally corneal dystrophies have been classified based on anatomic level of involvement, but due to the limitation of this classification, a modified classification is proposed by International Classification of Corneal Dystrophies (IC3D) classification in 2015 (Weiss et al. Cornea. 2015;34(2):117-59). According to the latest revision of IC3D, corneal dystrophies are now divided into (1) epithelial and subepithelial dystrophies, (2) epithelial-stromal TGFBI dystrophies, (3) stromal dystrophies, and (4) endothelial dystrophies. In vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) offers a non-invasive, high-resolution imaging modality of the living cornea at the cellular level. It helps in diagnosis and understanding the pathophysiology of corneal dystrophies by evaluating the extent and depth of dystrophic depositions and morphological changes of corneal structures at the histological level.