Risks in laser vision correction?

Question

What risks are involved with laser vision correction? If you have had laser vision correction, please relate your experience in detail.

Answer 1

Laser vision correction is a surgical procedure with several potential risks. The most serious ones are loss of vision because of either a severe eye infection (usually due to fungus or mycobacteria) or severe inflammation (corneal melting due to DLK). The cances of such devastating complications happening are very low - probably less than 0.5%.

Less severe complications include overcorrection, undercorrection, flap related complications (striae or folds), dry eyes, glare and halos.

It is very important to have a thorough preoperative evaluation to ascertain whether you are a good candidate for surgery. This means ruling out thin cornea (keratoconus), glaucoma etc. Please read the details of preoperative evaluation in the referenced article from AgingEye Times ( http://www.agingeye.net/ )

Answer 2

In short, limitations of technology and when risk exceeds benefit. Some common reasons why we don't treat patients with laser: 1. Unreasonable expectations: patients believe this is magic, all we can do is replace contact lenses/glasses, not make vision 'better'. (Leave well alone) 2. Cataracts: no point is lasering a patient when the lens is clouding over. Best to replace the natural lens with an artificial one as well as correct the prescription at the same time in one operation. (Answer: Phaco IOL operation) 3. Kerataconus: a corneal disease that progressively weakens the eye. Thinning the corneal tissue to correct prescription further weakens the cornea. Zero end sum, you are only going to progress the diease further. (C3R Collagen Crosslinking) 4. No prescription! Believe it or not, but about 10% of the patients who have consultations have nothing wrong and / or are getting onto Reading glasses stage. Many are not prepared to risk an induced monovision treatment and go back to reading glasses. 5. Previous treatment: Older treatments like RK have damaged the cornea beyond repair. (Answer, live with what is there or potentially a corneal graft) 6. Other reasons take up minor percentages: some have mental conditions which don't allow them to make an informed consent, some have auto-immune diseases that make them too risky to treat, some have other eye diseases that make laser unviable. And ultimately, there are some patients who don't want to entertain the risks and / or are not motivated enough to want the risk treatment. In answer to 20/20 restoration. It is not only the corneas which 'sees'. You have the eye, nerves and brain to deal with. Older people are susceptible to AMD, when the macula starts to die, the light cannot be processed and forwarded onto the brain. Likewise, if there is nerve or muscle damage from an early age 'lazy eye', 'strabismus' and the like, the person simply does not have the potential to reach 20/20. Hope this provides a few answers to a fairly broad question.

Answer 3

Glare, halos, blurry vision, torn cornea, incomplete lasering, astigmatism, over correction, under correction. But otherwise, no problem.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

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