If you are interested in finding out about the procedure involved in laser eye surgery you will be interested in the following information.
Initially, a consultation will take place between the patient and consultant to establish whether or not laser eye correction surgery is appropriate, and if so which type. Laser refractive eye surgery can help to treat short-sightedness (myopia), long-sightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism but it cannot treat age related vision problems (presbyopia). When patients have prescriptions which are too high for LASIK eye surgery or PRK, Intraocular Lens (IOL) surgery is suggested.
Myopic (short sighted) patients can see well close-up but things appear blurry in the distance so laser surgery will remove microscopic amounts of tissue from the centre of the cornea, to thin and flatten it and move the focus closer to, or onto the retina. The procedure for hyperopic (long sighted) patients is the opposite, so the laser removes microscopic tissue from the edge of the cornea. Astigmatisms (when the cornea is shaped like a football with two different curvatures) are treated using an oval laser beam.
LASIK laser surgery lasts around 20 minutes and is performed in out-patients with the patient lying in either a reclined position or a special chair. Throughout the operation the patient is awake but the eye is numbed with local anesthetic drops. A knife is used to cut a flap in the cornea, leaving a hinge at one end of the flap which is folded back to reveal the middle part of the cornea. A high tech laser reshapes the deep layers of the cornea to refocus the eye then replaces the flap. Once the corneal flap is replaced, natural forces hold the flap down on the cornea and usually within a few hours, the surface epithelium of the cornea begins to grow over the cut edge of the flap to seal it into position. No stitches are required.
The PRK technique is more uncomfortable than LASIK eye surgery or LASEK and is performed slightly differently. The surface skin (or epithelium) of the eye is removed to expose tissue which gives the eye its shape then the laser reshapes the cornea. LASEK is similar to PRK, except that instead of scraping the epithelium from the front of the eye, it is dissolved with alcohol.
Implant based procedures are generally performed under local anesthetic and the procedure takes around 30 minutes with a standard stay at hospital of about two hours. Patients can see well straight away but vision is much better after a few weeks. The second eye is usually treated when the wound from the first eye has healed, about two weeks later.
Both eyes can be treated on the same day with LASIK, but with PRK and LASEK there should be at least a week’s gap between surgery on each eye and once the decision has been made to have laser eye surgery, contact lenses must not be worn one week (soft lenses), four weeks (gas permeable hard lenses), or six weeks (conventional hard lenses) before surgery because the lenses can cause temporary changes in the corneal shape which makes accurate assessment difficult.
Get a quote for lazer eye treatment
If you are looking for a quote for laser eye correction surgery, or want more information about treatment in your local area, you can complete the Laser Eye Surgery Enquiry Form. Your enquiry will be forwarded to a maximum of three clinics or providers of laser eye treatment who partner with the Private Healthcare UK web site.
