Laser Eye Surgery

For the millions of people who are nearsighted, farsighted or had astigmatism, the availability of Laser Eye Surgery ushered in a new way of thinking about vision correction. Before 1995 millions of people in the United States who had common eye problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism really only had two vision correction options-they could wear eyeglasses, or they could wear contact lenses-to enable them to see clearly. Eye care professionals had in fact been using contact lens vision correction and spectacle vision correction for hundreds of years in order to provide myopic patients, hyperopic patients and those patients with astigmatism the ability to conduct their lives with clear vision.

In 1995, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first Excimer laser (www.fda.gov/cdrh/pmaoct95.html) that could be used to perform Laser Eye Surgery to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. The introduction of this technology to perform Laser Eye Surgery marked the beginning of eye care patients having the additional vision correction option of Laser Vision Correction in addition to glasses and contact lenses.

The first type of Laser Eye Surgery procedure performed was called Photorefractive Keratectomy or PRK. PRK proved to be a safe, effective and predictable method of Laser Eye Surgery and enabled millions of patients to have Laser Vision Correction by 1998. Although PRK has many advantages, it has two particular disadvantages that limited an even greater growth of Laser Vision Correction. In PRK, the laser is applied to the surface of the cornea, which is the clear curved lens at the front of the eye. To apply the laser energy most effectively required removing the outermost covering of the cornea causing moderate discomfort during the brief healing process. In addition, because the outermost layer of the cornea-an important optical and focusing element of the eye- was removed, it often required several days or more for patients to experience a good clear visual recovery. These two limitations motivated eye surgeons to further refine the technique of Laser Eye Surgery to facilitate quicker visual recovery and make it as comfortable a procedure as possible.

Eye surgeons began developing a technique whereby rather than applying the excimer laser to the surface of the cornea, they applied it between the layers of the cornea by first creating a very thin flap that could be easily replaced after the laser was applied. This type of Laser Eye Surgery is called “lamellar eye surgery” because it is performed between the layers. The most common type of lamellar eye surgery for correcting refractive vision problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism is called Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomlieusis or LASIK. Indeed, LASIK Eye Surgery is the most common type of Laser Eye Surgery today and has provided Laser Vision Correction to many millions of patients around the world.

At Connecticut Eye Center, our eye surgeons provide consultation for many types of  Laser Eye Surgery including:

• LASIK (Lasik Eye Surgery)
• PRK (Photorefractive keratectomy)
• Custom Wavefront Guided Laser Eye Surgery

to help each patient meet their personal vision correction goals.