LASIK Surgery

Perhaps one recent patient summed it up best of all:

"Yesterday, I was completely dependent on my glasses in virtually all aspects of my life: for work, for taking care of my family, for most of our recreational activities."

"Today," she said, " just 24 hours later, I have 20/20 vision in both eyes, after a completely painless laser surgery procedure. The doctor told me the technology was safe and wonderful. I told him I disagreed. I think it"s a miracle."

LASIK (Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis) is the very latest refractive surgery procedure now used to correct the annoying problems of nearsightedness and farsightedness. LASIK has a wonderful record for both safety and effectiveness, with rapid recovery time and little or no postoperative discomfort. In most instances, surgery is performed on both eyes the same day. Over 99 percent of our LASIK patients achieve vision of 20/40 in each eye, or better, following their procedure.

Many thousands of people come away from the LASIK surgery experience with that same point of view. It's difficult to imagine how quickly and dramatically a condition like poor vision can change without actually experiencing it.

And it's true, LASIK employs state-of-the-art technology in a matter of seconds to reshape the cornea of the eye and dramatically improve vision.

It is an outpatient procedure used to correct both nearsightedness (myopia) and hyperopia (farsightedness). The only difference in the approach to these two conditions is in the way the laser is used to reshape the cornea. When correcting farsightedness, tissue is removed around the edges of the cornea, increasing the curvature of the eye. This is the opposite of correcting vision for nearsightedness, where the goal is to flatten the cornea.

And LASIK can be highly effective even for patients who have an astigmatism--with a cornea with an irregular shape like a football, which causes vision to be distorted. Often, having an astigmatism makes wearing contact lenses difficult. With the LASIK procedure, the laser is used to correct your astigmatism even as it corrects near- or farsightedness.

LASIK is done in our Durham office as an outpatient procedure. Patients need to be in our office for approximately two hours on the day of surgery. You will be given valium and numbing eye drops upon arrival. You will be fully awake during the operation.

Once your eye is completely numb, the doctor uses a laser to make a thin corneal flap. The surgeon folds back this flap of tissue, and the excimer laser uses its precise, cold beam of ultraviolet light to reshape the cornea. Every detail of the procedure is programmed and controlled by computer. The laser beam is so accurate that it can cut notches in a human hair.

Reshaping the cornea changes the way light is refracted by the eye. For more information about these conditions, go to our page on refractive eye problems. As the surgeon completes use of the laser, the corneal flap is folded back in place, where it adheres without the need for stitches. No eye patches are needed after the procedure. And the tiny flap can be lifted at some future time if enhancement surgery is necessary.

The entire procedure is often completed within five or six minutes.

Typically, patients will have blurry vision immediately after the procedure. Functional vision is restored within 24 hours, with most patients returning to work within a day. The entire procedure is pain-free. Maximum vision improvement comes within three to four weeks after surgery.