What is laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery?
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Dr. Michael Roizen answered:Five million people in the U.S. have thrown away their eyeglasses and contacts, opting to have their eyeballs reshaped by a laser.
LASIK (Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis) is a high-tech method of altering the shape of your eye to improve your vision. The goal of LASIK is 20/20 vision. This means that at 20 feet, you'll see the 20 line on the eye chart; this is the level of acuity that is considered to be acceptable by most people.
Some people want the best possible vision for the average person, shooting for 20/12. Because of the way the light-sensing cones in the retina and the neurons in the brain process light and space, the best vision any human can have is 20/10.
While LASIK sounds great, it's still an imperfect procedure. LASIK relies on lasers to cut the cornea, and that's where problems can occur. Like any surgical procedure, about 3-5 percent of people have complications. While eyeballs have even been perforated, most problems are just nuisances leaving you with irregular vision and halos around light, particularly at night.
Your eyes might feel dry afterwards, and you might need saline drops. If this happens, be careful if you plan on having cosmetic eyelid surgery in the future, and make sure to tell your doc about your problem.
LASIK is irreversible and can't treat some shapes of eyeballs. Occasionally, blood vessels can grow into the cornea after the procedure, harming vision.
Newer techniques are being developed that hope to solve these problems. LASIK is a great procedure and one that we expect to improve with newer generations of computerized lasers, but if your job depends on perfect vision, like flying an airplane or performing surgery, you might want to wait a few more years before considering LASIK.
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Five million people in the U.S. have thrown away their eyeglasses and contacts, opting to have their eyeballs reshaped by a laser. LASIK (Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis) is a high-tech method of altering the shape of your eye to improve your... More -
American Academy of Ophthalmology answered:Laser in situ keratomileusis, or LASIK, is an outpatient surgical procedure used to treat myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism. With LASIK, your ophthalmologist (Eye M.D.) uses a laser to reshape the cornea (the clear covering of the eye) to improve the way the eye focuses light rays onto the retina.
LASIK may decrease your dependence on glasses and contacts or, in some cases, allow you to do without them entirely. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, seven out of 10 LASIK patients achieve 20/20 vision, but 20/20 does not always mean perfect vision. If you have LASIK to correct your distance vision, you’ll probably still need reading glasses by around age 45. Therefore, it is important for you to consider the possibility that LASIK may not give you perfect vision.
Laser in situ keratomileusis, or LASIK, is an outpatient surgical procedure used to treat myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism. With LASIK, your ophthalmologist (Eye M.D.) uses a laser to reshape the cornea (the clear... More -
LASIK is the acronym for laser in situ keratomileusis, sometimes referred to as laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis. The name refers to the use of a laser to reshape the cornea without invading the neighboring cell layers. In situ is Greek for "in the natural or normal place." Medically, in situ means confined to the site of origin without invasion of neighboring tissues. Kerato is the Greek word for cornea and mileusis means "to shape."
LASIK is a type of refractive eye surgery that may reduce a person's dependency on glasses or contact lenses by permanently changing the shape of the cornea (the delicate clear covering on the front of the eye).
Refractive eye surgery is a surgical procedure that changes the way the eye refracts light. As light rays enter the eye, the cornea and lens bend (refract) the rays to focus them on the back of the eye, the retina. If a patient has a refractive error, the eye is shaped in such a way that light rays are not sharply focused on the retina.
The cornea is the part of the eye that helps focus light to create an image on the retina. Usually the shape of the cornea and the eye are not perfect and the image on the retina is out-of-focus (blurred) or distorted. These imperfections in the focusing power of the eye are called refractive errors.
There are three primary types of refractive errors: myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Persons with myopia, or nearsightedness, have more difficulty seeing distant objects as clearly as near objects. Persons with hyperopia, or farsightedness, have more difficulty seeing near objects as clearly as distant objects. Astigmatism is a distortion of the image on the retina caused by irregularities in the cornea or lens of the eye. Combinations of myopia and astigmatism or hyperopia and astigmatism are common. LASIK surgery is most commonly used to correct myopia.
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LASIK is the acronym for laser in situ keratomileusis, sometimes referred to as laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis. The name refers to the use of a laser to reshape the cornea without invading the neighboring cell layers. In situ is Greek for "in... More -
RealAge answered:Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is a procedure through which a laser is used to change the shape of the cornea of the eye. The procedure is used to correct farsightedness, nearsightedness, or astigmatism.
Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is a procedure through which a laser is used to change the shape of the cornea of the eye. The procedure is used to correct farsightedness, nearsightedness, or astigmatism. Take the RealAge Test! More
