Lasik Eye Surgery
Lasik Eye Surgery – LasikEye.co is a website with full information resources about Lasik.
When we talk about Lasik Eye Surgery, different people have different thoughts and ideas. Some may think that it is a great idea to have the surgery, while other have doubts about it. So, what is Lasik exactly?
The definition for LASIK is Laser-Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis. This simply means a corrective surgery for myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. An ophthalmologist may perform this surgery using laser technology.
1. Is it safe?
Before deciding whether Refractive Surgery is the right way to go, it is the right of a patient to know how safe the surgery is, especially because it involves a very important organ of our body. Is it worth the risk just to look better without glasses?
A 2003 study entitled “Incidence and associations of retreatment after LASIK” by Hersh, Fry and Bishop showed that almost 18 percent of treated patients and 12 percent of treated eyes needed retreatment. Meanwhile, an October WebMD report stated that contact lens wear infection risk is higher than infection risk from LASIK.
2. Potential complications
One of the most common complain from Lasik Eye Surgery is “dry eyes”. It was reported in the American Journal of Ophthalmology study of March 2006 that 36 percent of patients experience incidence of dry eyes from LASIK Surgery after 6 months from surgery. Meanwhile, the Food and Drugs Administration stated in their website that “dry eyes” may become permanent.
Even though “dry eyes” is common, it should not be ignored. The high percentage of incidences warrants the need for proper treatment, such as artificial tears, prescription tears and punctal occlusion, which puts a collagen plug in the natural drain of the eye. Untreated “dry eyes” will cause a regression of the effect of the LASIK treatment, and may result in “chronic dry eyes”. A permanent visual impairment may be the ultimate outcome in severe cases of “chronic dry eyes”.
Other risks of Lasik Eye Surgery include ghosting (double vision), seeing halos, foggy vision, light sensitivity, induced astigmatism, corneal ectasia and glare. These are dependent on the degree of ametropia before the eye surgery and other factors. Thus, it is important to access the individual risk potential of a patient instead of generalizing the average probability of all patients.
a. Dry Eyes
“Dry Eyes” is a general layman term for Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS), sometimes also called keratitis sicca or sicca syndrome. It is an eye disease caused by decreased tear production, or sometimes increased tear film evaporation, which is common in humans and some animals.
Contrary to believe, dry eyes do cause eyes to water. The patient may identify symptoms such as dryness, burning sensation and an irritation that gets worse. Eyes may also feel itchy, scratchy, stingy or tired, pain, redness, a pulling sensation and pressure behind the eye. However, even if the eyes do water due to irritation, the type of watery tear does not have any lubricating qualities to help prevent dry eyes.
b. Ghosting (Double Vision)
The correct name for double vision is Diplopia, a simultaneous perception of two images of a single object. It looks like a transparent duplication of the original object and yes, there are treatments available for this condition.
c. Glare
Glare will cause much discomfort from reduced visibility, and very often sunglasses are worn to reduce glare. Meanwhile, polarized sunglasses may reduce glare as a result of reflection from non-metallic surfaces, including painted surfaces, gloss print matter and water. Some eyeglasses also have anti-reflective treatment to reduce glare at night, from inside lights and computer screens.
What else to be careful about?
The dynamics of our cornea is changed after Lasik Eye Surgery or any other forms of laser refractive surgery. As a result, it will be difficult for an optometrist and ophthalmologist to accurately measure a patient’s intraocular pressure and affect the calculations for the correct intraocular lens implant for a cataract surgery. Patients with a history of Lasik eye surgery will need to provide the ophthalmologist and optometrist the pre-operative, operative and post-operative eye measurements.
When you consider about whether you want to engage yourself with Lasik Eye Surgery, there are 3 categories of experience that you have to consider: Before, During and After.