Lasik Eye Surgery

Lasik eye surgery is the preferred type of eye surgery by both, patients and doctors, mainly because patients need less time to recover and feel less pain than with other eye surgeries. There are some cases where other laser eye surgeries are recommended, such as PRK.

Laser surgery with the Lasik method uses topical or local anaesthesia, which is administered through drops in the eyes. The steps followed by ophthalmologists in most lasik eye surgeries are the following:

1. First the doctor puts some local anaesthesia in the eyes of the patient (drops).
2. Then, the doctor proceeds to make a cut on the surface of the cornea, the corneal flap. Then the corneal flap is taken out momentarily to apply the laser on the cornea, which is now exposed. For a few seconds, the patient looses sharpness in her or his vision and only sees blurred light. This effect can be quite disruptive for someone who is not sufficiently informed on what is going to happen.
3. Then, the cornea is cut and remodelled using the excimer laser, which has been programmed and prepared for this procedure. For example, those patients with myopia, need a flattening of the cornea.
4. Then, the cornea flap is put back to its original position.

The laser always acts under the tissue of the cornea, which is protected afterwards with the corneal flap. Lasik eye surgery never introduces extraneous elements from outside of the body of the patient. For this reason, the recovery and the healing after laser surgery are very fast. Many patients who have been interviewed after the eye operation, say that the Lasik procedure has had an almost immediate improvement on their vision. However, it is important to note that a patient can take up to six months to reach a stable vision after overcoming laser surgery. Generally, there are no major consequences and there is little discomfort after corrective eye surgery