Here I am, Mr. Occulus, your friendly neighborhood wise eye with everything you wanted to know about LASIK!

TLDR : Lasik is pretty much a synonym for Refractive Surgery. Let’s take a closer look at LASIK or Laser Assisted in-situ Keratomileusis, which forms the second generation of refractive procedures after PRK.

Simplicity, it is said, is the ultimate form of sophistication. The popular saying perfectly captures the beauty of LASIK, the most popular type of Refractive Vision Correction.


With a success rate of over 96 per cent, it will do away or minimise the need for glasses and contact lenses. In most cases, it is a one-stop permanent solution and also largely pain-free.  Safe, successful and precise vision correction – sums up LASIK.

Laser Assisted in-situ Keratomileusis or LASIK

So, the question arises: what exactly is LASIK?

To explain in brief, LASIK is an acronym for Laser Assisted in-situ Keratomileusis, which came in as Gen Next Refractive surgery after PRK. What makes it the proverbial game-changer is the unique method of treatment which takes place in two steps. First, a corneal flap is formed. Next, a laser beam is used to remove some amount of tissue and reshape the cornea. The cornea is precisely sculpted, to enable light entering the eye to be properly focused on the Retina for clear vision. It would be no exaggeration to say that LASIK is a revolutionary procedure in modern eye care.

When do you need LASIK?

Without a doubt, LASIK surgery is the superhero that saves you from a host of vision problems.

Nearsightedness or myopia. As you may know, this is a condition where one eyeball is slightly longer than normal or when the cornea curves to sharply. As a result, light rays focus in front of the Retina and hamper your distance vision. You can only see objects close to you, but not those far away.

Farsightedness (hyperopia). This is the opposite condition of nearsightedness caused due to a flat cornea or a short eyeball. As a result, light focuses behind the Retina instead of on it. As a result, near vision is blurred.

Astigmatism: When the cornea curves or flattens unevenly, it disrupts the focus both near and far.

The benefits of LASIK have been proven time and again over a quarter of a century: there’s very little pain, no stitches or bandages and you do need cumbersome glasses or contacts as much, or even at all. Plus, if your vision changes as you age, your ophthalmic surgeon can adjust it.





Preparation for LASIK: Planning is everything!

As the saying goes: A square peg in a round hole is never a good fit. This is simply another way of saying that the best possible outcomes are enjoyed by patients who have been meticulously chosen for the surgery. More on that in the next blogs.

Typically, though, your eye doctor will note down your previous medical records and carry out a thorough eye check up to assess whether you will benefit from the procedure. In case you have an eye infection or inflammation of any kind in the eye, dry eyes, enlarged pupils or high eye pressure, the doctor will first treat the condition. A careful measurement of your cornea, its shape, contour and thickness are necessary to evaluate which areas of your cornea actually require reshaping and determine exactly how much tissue needs to be removed from your cornea.

his is the time to discuss the risks of the surgery, what to expect before or after, and any other questions that you need to ask.

Those wearing contact lenses will need to discontinue them a few weeks before the procedure. Guidelines will differ from case to case, depending upon what contacts you use and how long you’ve been using them.

What the procedure involves

(Images and steps will be laid out together)

The good news first. LASIK surgery is usually completed in approximately half an hour.  For LASIK surgery in both eyes, the procedure is usually conducted on the same day.

Step 1 : As you lie back in a reclining chair, numbing drops in the eye will help ease the pain. An instrument will ensure your eyelids stay open. A suction ring will be placed on your eye just before cutting the corneal flap.

Step 2: 

The ophthalmic surgeon will use a cutting laser to make a small flap away from the front of your eye. Folding back the flap allows your doctor to access the part of your cornea to be reshaped. 

Step 3:

ow a programmed laser will reshape the cornea. With each pulse of the beam, a small amount of corneal tissue is removed.

During the surgery, you will be asked to focus on a point of light-this will help you keep your gaze fixed as the laser reshapes the cornea. You may experience a distinct odour as the laser removes corneal tissue.

Step 4:

After reshaping the cornea, the surgeon lays the flap back into place. The flap usually heals without stitches.

Step 1:

Numbing drops

Step 2:

Flap creation

Step 3:

Laser sculpting



Step 4:

Flap repositioning

Side-effects of the surgery

As stated before, permanent side-effects of LASIK are very rare. But you may encounter temporary conditions that will resolve with time, care and treatment;

• Dry eyes due to a temporary reduction in tear production. This can reduce the quality of your vision, so doctors recommend eye drops. In case of severe dry eyes, there’s a procedure to put special plugs in your tear ducts to prevent them from draining away from the surface of your eyes. But this is rare.
  
  
• Double vision, halos and glares: Increased light sensitivity, glares, halos around bright lights or double vision can happen as well. Even vision in dim light (such as at dusk or in conditions of fog) may be reduced to a greater degree after the surgery than before the surgery.
  
  
• Undercorrections or overcorrections: As the name suggests, either of the conditions could occur if too little or too much tissue is removed from the eye. As a result, you may have to undergo another corrective procedure.
  
  
• Astigmatism: This occurs due to uneven tissue removal and may need additional surgery, glasses or contacts.
  
  
• Flap problems: Folding back or removing the flap from the front of your eye during surgery can cause complications, including infection and excess tears. The outermost corneal tissue layer may grow abnormally underneath the flap as the eye heals.
  
  
• Regression: In rare cases, your vision slowly goes back towards your original prescription.

This is not to alarm you  for the surgery is overwhelmingly successful in most cases. But as the old and the wise say: to be forewarned is to be forearmed. 

Another critical part of the information is to understand just who the right candidate for LASIK is and who can benefit with something else instead!

What’s important, is that if you choose to do LASIK, you must do so with all the information in your kitty, including the fact that most insurances do not cover LASIK and that it is regarded as an elective surgery.

Your doctor is the best person to advise you on whether LASIK is suited for you. So, if you are reading this and considering LASIK, why not take the next step and book an appointment?

Keep reading this space….

(Inputs from assorted medical websites, articles and KK’s archives.)