Outcomes and risks of LASIK surgery

Question

If an individual with poor eyesight undergoes LASIK surgery, will it return the sight exactly to normal? What are the risks of the procedure? Are there any side effects or complications to be concerned about?

Answer 1

Post-operative complications include the following:

• Visually significant wrinkles or striae in the flap (1%)
• Dislocated flap (early postoperative period)
• Infection (early postoperative period; very rare; < 0.02%)
• Diffuse intralamellar keratitis (< 0.1%)
• Epithelial ingrowth (early to late postoperative; 1-2%)
• Under/overcorrection (see results)
• Ectasia (incidence unknown; < 0.01%)

In general, LASIK results are better for patients with low myopia (between 1-6 D) and low astigmatism (< 1 D). Stability has been reported to be good with little or no change noted in most patients between 3 months and 1 year postoperative. Other factors that can affect results include the type of laser and microkeratome used and surgeon experience.

But:

1. But personally I have heard from some of my colleges that it can recur again after 10yr or so.
2. The procedure is nothing but to reduce cornea part of eye, so in future at old age if you develop cataract (which has incidence of above 70%among old age people), cataract surgery options gets limited because we have lost considerable amount of cornea for this LASIK.
3. My old Opthalmology professor, denied me to go for LASIK (I am too myopic - wear glass). He gave me 5 min lecture on that day telling about complication (I miss him now though). This conversation happened 2 yr back. Not ages old.
4. He just told "don't waste your cornea"

Answer 2

Risks of LASIK (Laser-Assisted in situ Keratomileusis) can include:

• Vision loss due to infection,

  The researchers calculated the risk of significant vision loss consequence of LASIK surgery to be closer to 1-in-10,000 cases.

• Higher-order aberrations,

  These aberrations include 'starbursts', 'ghosting', 'halos' and others.

• Dry eyes,

  Although it is usually temporary it can develop into dry eye syndrome.

• Halos,

  Some post-LASIK patients see halos and starbursts around bright lights at night.

• Other complications include:

  • flap complications (0.244%),
  • "slipped flap",
  • "Flap interface particles",
  • Diffuse lamellar keratitis (or DLK),
  • Infection (0.4%),
  • Post-LASIK corneal ectasia (similar to keratoconus),
  • subconjunctival hemorrhage (10.5%),
  • Corneal scarring,
  • epithelial ingrowth (0.1%)
  • traumatic flap dislocations,
  • Glaucoma,
  • Retinal detachment (0.36%),
  • Choroidal neovascularization (0.33%),
  • Uveitis (0.18%),
  • corneal keratocytes
  • Late postoperative complications

    A large body of evidence on the chances of long-term complications is not yet established and may be changing due to advances in operator experience, instruments and techniques.

Some people with poor outcomes from LASIK surgical procedures report a significantly reduced quality of life because of vision problems or physical pain associated with the surgery. A small percentage of patients may need to have another surgery because their condition is over-corrected or under-corrected.

Source: LASIK - Risks at Wikipedia