Laser Eye Surgery Risks

Like all surgeries, laser eye surgery too has its own risks. No surgery is ever ‘risk free’. Certain complications arise, and in some cases, people suffer certain conditions after laser eye surgery. If you are contemplating laser eye surgery, you are well advised to know the risks involved:
Improper focusing of light
Laser eye surgery is centered on the pupil and any de-centered incision will result in improper focusing of light. Many lasers have an eye-tracking beam to reduce any possibility of de-centered ablation.
Accelerating cataract clouding
Although a natural occurrence brought on by age, cataract - the clouding of the crystalline lens - can be brought on faster by the invasive laser eye surgery.
Under correction due to room temperature
Temperature and humidity of the laser room, hydration of the cornea during surgery and calibration of laser could result in under-correction. This would require additional laser treatment after three months to allow the results to stabilize. Though rare, over-correction can change a myopic condition to a hyperopic condition. This too can be corrected with a further surgery.
Astigmatism
Some times surgery can cause Astigmatism. Although the reasons are not known, the alignment of the patient's eye and uniformity of the laser beam could be the reasons. This can be corrected by glasses or gas permeable contact lenses.
Loss of visual acuity
There could be loss of visual acuity. Assume that a pre-operative vision of 20/400 without glasses and contact lenses, and a 20/20 vision with them, improves after laser surgery to 20/30 without glasses and contact lenses, and 20/20 vision with thinner glasses and contact lenses. You would have lost visual acuity if the 20/30 post surgery vision cannot be improved even with glasses and contact lenses. This may happen in 5% of the low to medium Myopia patients.
Corneal haze condition
You could develop a corneal haze, a ground-glass like appearance, after laser eye surgery. A minor haze could be taken care with anti-inflammatory eye drops. A more dense haze may require re-surgery.
Decrease in night time vision
You may experience a decrease in night time vision, halos and star bursts etc. There may be reduced brightness and glare. In very rare cases, there is always a possibility of blindness and a probable sight-threatening infection, endophthalmitis.
Laser eye surgery is normally safe, but there is always a risk of post-operative infections. Normally, these do not have long term complications, and are usually treated with eye drops. If undecided about the risks of laser eye surgery, discuss the pros and cons with your ophthalmologist.
Read more on LASIK Facts to help you learn facts on LASIK eye surgery. Is LASIK surgery for you? Find out more. Also learn what you should and should not do to speed up LASIK recovery time.
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