LASIK Vs. PRK

With each passing day, more number of people are getting laser eye surgery done, but a lot of them are confused between which laser eye treatment is better for their condition. For the uninformed, there are two major types of laser eye treatment, namely LASIK and PRK. LASIK stands for Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis and PRK stands for Photo Refractive Keratectomy. Both these procedures intend to correct a person's vision, reducing dependency on glasses or contact lenses. We will now compare LASIK and PRK, to see what makes these procedures different from one another.

LASIK Vs. PRK Eye Surgery

Laser eye correction is a surgical procedure, which uses a cool (non-thermal) beam of light to gently reshape the surface of the eye for vision improvement. With the laser surgery, the microscopic bits of tissue to flatten the corner, for correcting nearsightedness and to steepen the cornea, to correct farsightedness and/or smoothen out the corneal irregularities for correcting astigmatism. In short, the main goal of a laser eye surgery is to change the shape of the cornea, so that it is better able to focus on images onto the retina for sharper vision. Although, the goal of both these surgery is the same, there are certain differences between both of them. To understand the differences, we will read in brief about each one of them.

LASIK Eye Surgery
LASIK eye surgery uses an excimer laser beam to reshape the cornea. However, the LASIK procedure is done under a thin corneal flap, which helps in preserving the surface epithelial cells, rather than scraping away the cells to expose the corneal stroma. A specialized surgical instrument is used to create a flap of corneal tissue, that is attached by a hinge. The flap is gently pulled back to expose the corneal stroma. The laser beam is passed onto the exposed corneal bed and the laser procedure does not take more than 30 to 90 seconds.

For more information, read on

• LASIK Facts
• LASIK Eye Surgery Pros and Cons

PRK Eye Surgery
In a PRK procedure, the front surface of the cornea is scrapped with an excimer laser to expose the corneal stroma. The layer is regenerated within a few days. As is the case with LASIK procedure, in PRK eye surgery computer-controlled pulses are passed through the exposed surface in order to reshape the cornea. Normally, less than 10 percent of the cornea is affected with this procedure, but the deeper layers remain untouched.

Difference Between LASIK and PRK
A similarity between LASIK and PRK is, that in both the forms of surgery no pain is involved during the procedure itself. However, both doctors and patients prefer LASIK over PRK, because of rapid vision recovery and minimal post-operative care is required for a LASIK surgery. This is due to the fact that in LASIK the epithelial cells at the surface are preserved, which do not need to regrow. PRK surgery is recommended for people who have thinner cornea for a LASIK surgery or if a patient suffers from corneal irregularities or scars. As far as the costs go, the costs do not vary much and lie in the same bracket.

When you want to undergo laser eye treatment, it is recommended you ask all the questions you have pertaining to LASIK as well as PRK, as there can be minor differences between the treatment with different surgeons. You may also want to ask about what all is included in the surgery cost, in case an enhancement surgery is required, will you have to pay extra, what would happen in case there is a complication, cost of medicines, etc., and any other question you may have.