Lasik Eye Surgery

What is lasik eye surgery? LASIK, an acronym for Laser in-situ keratomileusis, is a refractive surgery procedure that helps in treatment of several vision related disorders like near sightedness, far sightedness and astigmatism. With the help of laser treatment, the cornea is reshaped to improve vision.

Procedure
LASIK is a type of laser eye surgery in which either one or both the eyes are treated together. After anesthetic drops are put into the eyes of the patient (to make eye surface numb), eyelids are stretched wide open by the help of an equipment known as lid speculum. This ensures that the eyelids don't interfere with the surgical procedure. After this, thin corneal layer is cut off by special instrument, laser microkeratome. A smaller uncut portion is left attached to the eyes, to form a flap. By lifting this flap, LASER is administered to reshape cornea. Details about corrective measures for the patients eyes are fed in a computer program and the LASER works on the instructions of those set programs. For every individual, these details are fed into the computer after medical experts have examined the eyes properly. Lastly, the doctor makes several arrangements to ensure that the surgical operation doesn't cause any harm to the eyes and hence he puts eye shields or patch to avoid any complications.

Surgery Risks
Like every medical surgery, there are various complications of LASIK. Various common eye problems after LASIK surgery as follows.

• Dry eyes after LASIK eye surgery is one of the most commonly reported complained from patients.
• Some patients have reported to have lost a certain sensitivity to light leading to poor vision.
• Misalignment of the flap is another side effects of LASIK surgery.
• Weakening of the cornea after surgery leads to several complications in vision after surgery.
• Some other risks of this surgery include blood accumulation in conjunctiva and infection in the eye

Surgery Recovery
The recovery time for LASIK depends on several factors that is, it's dependent on parameters before, during and after the operation. Precisely stated, the first phase where immense care is required are the first few hours immediately after operation and when one is attempting to resume work. It is said that the recovery time for this surgery, is six months. This does not mean a patient is unable to have proper vision for months. It means that for proper healing, regular check ups till 6 months after the surgery are crucial. Proper vision is attained in most patients within a day. Recovery is faster and you may be able to see after a day but proper eye care is valuable to recover completely.

Surgery Cost
Anesthesia cost, surgical care, post surgical hospital care, surgeon fee and medications are some of the expenses that add to the total surgery costs. Nearly, US$250 to US$500 per eye is the cost of LASER eye surgery. It can certainly vary depending on several other factors like location of clinic etc.

It is advisable to schedule an appointment with an expert eye doctor and discuss the issue with him. Since LASIK is a very short surgical procedure, it has become popular because patients don't have to go through long hours of surgery. Moreover, many people have improved their vision through this surgery and hence it has gained popularity. You, your family and an expert eye doctor can decide the best option to choose for your vision related problem.