In our world today technology has advanced to the stage where it has made our lives a lot easier than they once were. Whether it be the invention of the intranet and home PC or more importantly advancements in health care. When it comes to health care for instance in recent years one of the most noted advancements has been laser eye surgery.
Laser eye surgery, as we all know by now, is a great way to eliminate our use of eyeglasses to help us have an improved vision.
On the other hand, like any other medical procedure or treatment, there are complications that can take place when having laser eye surgery.
In this article we will discuss these risks and complications and talk about what can be done in each instance.
Possible complications that can take place in laser eye surgery
We’ve all heard about over and under correction associated with laser eye surgery, maybe some have heard of flap wrinkles too, but it is more than likely that you will not have heard of some of the more dangerous laser eye surgery complications such as central corneal Islands in the eyes.
In some cases the laser used during surgery doesn’t remove the tissue in a uniform manner and so areas of tissue end up raised up and form Central Corneal Islands. Luckily only 1% of patients generally suffer from this.
Your doctor may simply prescribe corrective contact lenses to cure this problem or you may be able to have more surgery to attempt to correct the problem.
Another complication can be DLK (diffuse lamellar keratitis). This generally happens when certain foreign bodies become trapped in the corneal flap.
When this occurs a patient can experience blurred eyesight, more than normal sensitivity to light, possibly some pain and or the sensation that something is trapped in the patient’s eye.
When this occurs the patient’s doctor will in most cases subscribe an oral or topical medication and this should cure the problem.
Epithelial in-growths can grow under the patient’s corneal flap and in doing so cause significant vision problems.
Corneal ecstasia is a complication that takes place due to surgeon error. Essentially in these cases the surgeon either removes too much corneal tissue or he or she makes to bigger incision during the flap creation process.
At this moment there is not much that can be done when this complication takes place, other than a corneal transplant.
After reading this article you may be feeling a little more uncertain about laser eye surgery. Nevertheless it is important to remember that these complications only take place a very small percentage of the time. But of course before undergoing surgery you should evaluate whether it’s worth that small risk to you.