Abstract:Cornea is the major refractive components of the eye. As a viscoelastic tissue, cornea exhibits complicated biomechanical properties: non-linear elasticity, anisotropy and viscoelasticity. The biomechanical properties play an important role in keeping the normal structureand function. Changes in biomechanical properties are always earlier than the clinical symptoms. So quantitative measurement of the biomechanical properties benefits the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Different methods to measure the biomechanical properties of cornea were reviewed in detail, including classic ex vivo destructive tests, commercially available in vivo measuring methods and other emerging methods with the potential for clinical application but not validated for in vivo measurement. The operating principles, advantages as well as limitations of these methods were also described.
