Introduction
Laser eye surgery or Keratectomy is where a laser is used to reshape the cornea of people who have problems seeing and wear glasses or contact lenses. These surgeries are usually effective in correcting the way a patients eye focuses light rays onto the retina, but like any other medical surgery complications are a real risk. The most common of these laser eye surgeries is LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis), it is estimated that an encouraging 97% of all patients who undergo this surgery get their sight corrected. This surgery is painless and the end results are usually immediate. The first thing that is done when a patient wants to undergo LASIK is the doctor will try to determine if he/she is a favourable candidate for the surgery, by doing advanced eye diagnostics on the patient by analyzing the shape and thickness of the cornea, size of the pupil, check for refractive errors, check for dry eye syndrome, evaluate the patients overall health and medical history. The surgery is usually performed by licensed and well trained ophthalmologist, thus having them do the procedure can drastically reduce risks involved.
Potential Risks and Complications
The safety and effectiveness of LASIK and other laser eye surgeries have been proven to continually improve, because of the increasing use of more sophisticated technologies, optimal surgical skill and patient evaluation. But, like any other surgery laser eye surgery also has its potential complications. A key problem with laser eye surgeries is that the reshaping of the cornea done during surgery, cannot be reversed if need beckons. This surgeries are also relatively complex and having the right person doing it is of the utmost importance because problems might arise for particularly hard parts such as when the doctor is making flaps, if done improperly this might cause blindness. Some of the other potential complications involved include the following;
1. There is the possibility this surgery might cause irreversible eye damage such as blindness. Although rare an improperly functioning laser device might cause irreparable damage to the eye or in some cases problems that arise during flapping where the doctor creates a thin slice flap on the the cornea. This flat is hoisted during surgery for laser reshaping of the eye and subsequently replaced to form a sort of natural bandage. If done improperly it can lead to an improperly shaped eye surface which leads to distorted vision.
2. Serious night vision problems may occur to some patients after the surgery they might be unable to see well at night after the surgery or develop serious visual symptoms such as seeing double or halos. Some might even go back to seeing badly as the used to or even worse, this is because the patient’s eyes may have not responded as intended to laser eye surgery. This can be remedied with additional laser eye surgeries.
3. Infections in the eye after surgery might also happen, this infections are usually less common to LASIK than it is to other laser eye surgeries such as PRK and other surgeries that use the surface ablation procedure. This infections are easy to treat with antibiotic eye drops or steroid based anti-inflammatory drugs.
Author Bio: Amy Lawson is a Passionate blogger. She works on behalf of Ehic. She has been writing contents on the web professionally since 2006. As an avid reader and blogger,she shares her experience through her articles on Travel, Education, Technology, Parenting and many more.