Laser eye surgery risks are relatively low compared to other forms of surgery. This is because the eye is operated on in a relatively non-invasive way. Other surgical or cosmetic procedures involve cutting through the skin and some flesh to deal with the problem. Not so in laser eye surgery; the surgeon has the relative luxury of being able to work on the eye directly. This means that the likelihood of complications arising during recovery and healing are greatly lowered.
Laser Eye Surgery Risks Of course, there are always some risks in all surgical procedures. Luckily, even the worst outcomes in laser eye surgery, barring one-in-a-million freak occurrences, can be managed or corrected simple by a follow-up procedure called an enhancement.
LASIK Eye Surgery Risks
There are a few broad categories of risks which we’ll look at momentarily. Firstly, though, let’s consider the overall safety of LASIK surgery.
The idea of having someone shine lasers into your eyes is discomfiting to most people. The idea that someone will be shining lasers into your eyes and then poking them with a scalpel is enough to give most of us the shivers. This is perfectly natural – we’ve evolved to have hundreds of thousands of years of instinctive reflexes about protecting our eyes.
In this instance, though, reflexes are doing us a disservice. LASIK technology, and the equipment – both scalpels and non-bladed technologies – have been designed to have multiple failsafes and to focus on precision and safety over everything else. Why?
Because, firstly, if there were significant dangers, nobody would undergo the surgery. Secondly, it’s in everyone’s best interest that things go smoothly – the manufacturers of the equipment, the surgeon, the surgery, the patient – everyone.
So for these reasons, the likelihood of catastrophic failure is extremely low. You’re not going to get blinded, nobody’s going to gouge your eye out. Realistically, the worst case scenario will probably involved some mild discomfort and possibly a return visit to have further corrections made.
LASIK Undercorrection and Overcorrection
It is possible that your eyesight will be slightly undercorrected or overcorrected during the laser eye surgery. Because we’re talking about minute, almost microscopie adjustments to a tiny part of the body, small margins of error can have magnified consequences.
Undercorrection and overcorrection is easily fixed with a follow-up procedure, usually carried out at no additional cost, and is detected during eyesight tests in the follow-up appointments that are standard after eye surgery.
Under- and over-correction occurs in approximately 2% of cases.
Loss of Visual Sharpness and Acuity
In some cases, your eyesight may not immediately restore to its previous levels of clarity. As the eye heals, one’s vision normally sharpens and improves. However, on the odd occasion, this doesn’t happen.
If eyesight has not improved after several months, the surgeon will normally carry out an enhancement surgery to help restore clarity. The incidence of loss of visual sharpness is higher in the short term, but less than 1% of patients are affected after a 6 month healing period. The loss of sharpness should not be severe enough to impact on daily life; if it is, the surgeon will redress it sooner.
Serious Flap Complications
Most forms of LASIK surgery involve making a small incision – or ‘flap’ – over the eye, allowing the surgeon to access Tectonic Edge eye directly. The flap can fail to re-seal correctly, or not heal properly, in some isolated cases. The incidence of flap complications is around 1 in 1000, and can be fixed by a follow-up procedure. The most common problem is the flap healing incrrectly and accumulating a protein build-up, which can make the eye cloudy but causes no lasting damage.
Sensitivity to Glare
It is not uncommon to experience some sensitivity to glare after laser eye surgery. Sensitivity usually fades with time, and one can experience glare sensitivity in both day and nighttime conditions.
Dry and Uncomfortable Eyes
Some patients experience discomfort in their eyes directly after an operation. Around 1 in 75 patients have some mild discomfort, not unlike getting pool water in one’s eyes, for a few hours after the operation.
Much less frequently, patients can experience more long-term soreness, lasting 4-6 weeks after the operation. The incidence of such discomfort is about 1 in 800 patients.
Some people, particularly older eye surgery patients, suffer from ‘dry eyes’ for a few months after LASIK surgery. This can be managed with over-the-counter eye drops to keep the eye lubricated and comfortable.
Infections
Standard post-operation care for eye surgery includes antibiotic eyedrops, which should be taken carefully and regularly. With antibiotic protection, infection of the eye is extremely rare, less than 1 in 5,000.
As you can see, laser eye surgery and LASIK eye surgery in particular have few risks, and what risks there are can be easily reversed or dealt with by simple intervention. When you consider the benefit of having reduced reliance on eyeglasses and contacts, and the relative affordability of laser eye surgery, you can see why it is one of the world’s most popular elective surgeries!
