Laser Eye Surgery – What You Should Look For When Thinking Of Having It
One of the greatest benefits offered by modern medical science is laser eye surgery. Advancement in medical science has increased human life span, decreased the time of recovery and enabled the patients to leap back into normalcy at the shortest possible time. Laser eye surgery has given a new life to many eyes, enabling eye patients to get rid of heavy spectacles and irritable contact lenses.
However, it is to be noted that laser eye surgery is not suitable for everybody. Laser eye surgery is not a foolproof process and eyesight after the surgery may deteriorate accidentally. People suffering from ongoing medical conditions like glaucoma, diabetes are poor candidates for laser eye surgery. People suffering from uncontrolled vascular disease, autoimmune disease, or people with certain eye diseases involving the cornea or retina will not benefit. Before going for laser eye surgery, consulting pros and cons of the eye-surgery with your physician is an absolute pre-requisite.
Pregnant woman should not go for any kind of refractive eye surgery, because the refraction of the eye may be changed in the process. Threat to your vision out of a laser eye surgery is remote. There have been no reported cases of blindness after eye surgery under the PRK and LASIK procedures so far. However, some risk factors should be known by you, before you head for the eye surgery.
There have been a few instances of severe eye injury during corneal transplant. There is a 0.1% chance of your cornea being infected, leading to discomfort and delay in healing. In laser eye surgery, it is impossible to perfectly predict how your eyes will respond to the surgery. You may need to use corrective lenses in the post-operational stage in order to improve your vision.
Another trouble that patients face in laser eye surgery is corneal haze. It is prevalent during the healing process and normally does not affect final vision. Some patients face the effect of regression. That is, the effect of refractive surgery is gradually lost. This can be cured often with a re-treatment. Another risk arising out of laser eye surgery is known as the ‘halo effect’. The effect is related to enlargement of the pupil and is generally noticed in dim light.
For LASIK mode of eye surgery, there are two more risks, flap damage loss and distorted flap. Again rarely, malfunctioning of the equipment(s) during laser eye surgery may force the eye surgery to be stopped before completion. Even if the eye surgery is performed smoothly, older patients should realize that they could not have both good distance vision and good near vision in the same eye without using corrective lenses.
In order to become a good candidate for laser eye surgery, you should be at least 21 years of age for a summit laser and 18 years of age for a VISX laser. Before laser eye surgery, your eyes must be healthy and free from any retinal problems and corneal scars. You should have mild to moderate myopia, within the range of treatment by laser eye surgery. You should be in a position to afford the eye surgery and the cost is substantially high. Last but not the least, you should be aware about the risks attached to laser eye surgery vis-à-vis other modes of treatment in order to arrive at a decision.
You must log in to post a comment.