LASIK Surgery

Refractive eye surgery is a surgical procedure to correct vision problems by reshaping the cornea in order to sharply focus the light rays on retina.

There have been many tremendous technology advancement made to correct vision problems in recent years and many patients have had successful results and reported that the refractive eye surgery they had have improved their quality of lives by not having to see and read with glasses or contact lenses.

LASIK is not the only surgical method to correct vision problems, although it is considered as the most popular one. Below are several surgical methods to correct the refractive errors on eyes:

1. LASIK
LASIK is a shot form of laser assisted in-situ keratomileusis. It is a surgical procedure to correct mild to moderate eye problems by using laser. Before reshaping the cornea using LASIK method, the ophthalmologist uses a special blade (microkeratome) or special cutting laser to cut a small hinged flap in the outer layer of cornea and then the laser is used to reshape the cornea - either to flatten the curve of cornea or make it steeper. After that, the flap is replaced over the reshaped cornea. LASIK as an option of refractive eye surgery is for patients with nearsightedness (myopia) and farsightedness (hyperopia), with or without astigmatism.

2. PRK (Photo Refractive Keratectomy)
Same with LASIK, the PRK method is also an option for patients who are nearsighted, farsighted, with or without astigmatism in low-to-moderate degree. During the PRK, the ophthalmologist uses an excimer laser to reshape the cornea. Not like LASIK that create a hinged flap in the cornea before reshaping it, PRK is performed with an excimer laser, which uses a cool ultraviolet light beam to precisely remove (ablate) very tiny bits of tissue from the surface of the cornea, not underneath the cornea in order to reshape it.

3. LASEK
LASEK stands for Laser Epithelial Keratomileusis. It’s also called E-LASIK or epithelial LASIK because basically LASEK procedure is similar to LASIK. It is used for patients who have too thin or too flat corneas for LASIK. During LASEK eye surgery, the outer part of cornea (epithelium) is cut with finer blade called trephine (20% alcohol solution to loosen the edge of epithelium) to allow the laser to reshape the underneath tissue of cornea. Then the epithelial flap is replaced.

4. ALK
ALK is a short form of Automated Lamellar Keratoplasty, a surgical procedure to correct vision in people with severe nearsightedness and mild degrees of farsightedness. It has the similar procedure as LASIK that created a flap with a cutting device across the cornea but not reshaping the cornea with laser. Instead, ALK uses a special cutter to remove a thin slice of cornea. Then, the corneal flap is replaced. However, ALK is no longer routinely performed due to more predictable results from other vision correction procedures.

5. LTK
LTK or Laser Thermokeratoplasty eye surgery is a slightly new surgical procedure for patients with farsightedness and astigmatism. During LTK laser eye surgery, a laser beam uses heat to shrink and reshape the cornea. It’s a very fast eye surgery and the FDA has labeled LTK as a ‘non-permanent’ eye surgery because a patient who have had the LTK laser eye surgery will commonly lose some or even all the corrective effects within three months to ten years after surgery.

6. AK
AK or Astigmatic Keratotomy is a refractive eye surgery to treat astigmatism. Patients with astigmatism have cornea shaped like football and the AK eye surgery makes one or two incisions at the steepest part of the cornea to allow cornea relax and take a more rounded shape. Astigmatic Keratotomy is one of the safe and effective ways to correct astigmatism, but it has been largely replaced by LASIK in recent years.

7. RK
RK stands for Radial Keratotomy. It was once of the most popular eye surgery to correct nearsightedness. However, the development of other refractive eye surgery, such as LASIK, LASEK and PRK has largely replace RK method.

8. Epi-LASIK
Epi-LASIK is a kind of surgical procedure similar to LASEK, that was developed to solve some problems with LASIK and LASEK. It’s suitable for patients with too thin cornea (who have low degrees of myopia or nearsightedness). During the Epi-LASIK eye surgery, instead of cutting the epithelium with a finer blade like in LASEK, the ophthalmologist uses a blunt, plastic oscillating blade and epithelial separator to fold the flap out of the way. Then excimer laser is used to sculpt the underneath corneal tissue and the epithelial flap is replaced with a kind of spatula.