EYE SURGERY

Laser eye treatment has been around for several years and it has started gaining wide spread acceptance by medical practioners. Laser eye surgery is considered to be an alternative to wearing glasses or contact lenses. There is less pain involved in the whole process and the patients do not have to take rest for a longer period of time. Every aspect is made simplified in the Laser surgeries. It is relatively safe and quick. Some of the top most and popular corrective laser eye surgery procedures are:

Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis(LASIK) works good for shortsighted, longsighted and astigmatism eye conditions. This is the most common practice followed for most of the cases which involves a surgical incision to the cornea creating a flap. The flap tends to pave way for the surgeon to use the laser for treatment purpose. The flap can be healed much faster and is allowed to re-attach to the cornea. The actual treatment with the laser takes place only for about 1 minute and the entire laser eye surgery will get over by 15 minutes.

Laser Epithelial Keratomileusis(LASEK) is very similar to LASIK. The only difference lies is that the flap is created in the epithelium instead of cornea. Patients feel much better after the surgery and get back a proper and clear vision.

Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) is a treatment for people suffering from nearsighted, having mild to moderate farsightedness and astigmatism. The laser treatment is used to remove the tiny tissue which is found on the surface of the cornea.

Conductive Keratoplasty (CK) uses radio frequency energy for the treatment. It uses a probe which is as thin as a strand of human hair which is used to reshape the cornea by reducing the small areas of the tissue.

There are more reports which suggest that patients feel much better in their vision after the laser eye surgery which is a long lasting one. The pain after the usual surgeries is nullified here. Some of the benefits obtained by the patients are listed here.

- Ability to have a clear vision on waking

- The dependency on glasses and contact lenses are removed

- Enhanced vision without much difficulty

There are certain risks involved and patients have to be wise in following the guidelines. Some of the most common risks posed are:

- Loss of vision, Dry eyes

- Irritation of eyes (usually during the first 24 hours after the surgery)

- Irregular astigmatism

- Glaring

- Overcorrected or Under corrected vision

- Inability to wear glasses or contact lenses in the near future

- Requires a corneal graft on loosing the corneal flap

- Infection

People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts, herpes infections of the eyes are not well suited for laser eye surgery. There are probabilities for the patients to opt for second level of laser treatment for certain special cases of impaired vision.