LaserPro Eye Center, Laser Eye Surgery, Lasik, Surgeon, Pasadena, San Gabriel, Glendale

Realistic Expectations
Nearly everyone who experiences laser vision correction greatly reduces his or her dependence on glasses or contact lenses; but no one can promise you in advance that you will be free of glasses forever. As miraculous as LASIK may be, Laser Vision Correction does have limitations:

1. Your uncorrected vision after LASIK may not be quite as sharp as your corrected vision was prior to LASIK. There is a 5% chance that you may need to wear mild glasses or contact prescription to "fine tune" the vision after LASIK.

2. There is a 5-7% incidence of retreatment after LASIK.A two to three month waiting period is usually needed to ensure that vision has stabilized before any retreatments. This waiting period can be frustrating, because mild glasses may be needed during this period.

3. Glare after LASIK can be annoying, not usually visually significant. Patients may notice glare around lights and rays coming off of lights at night. Most patients say that the glare is no worse than what they experienced with contact lenses or glasses. The glare diminishes over time, usually within three to six months.

4. Patients over forty years of age must adapt to their age-related loss of near vision (presbyopia). They must either wear reading glasses for near or learn to adapt to Monovision. Monovision correction allows patients to see at near and far without correction, but they may need to wear mild glasses correction for night driving, or reading, or computer work for extended periods of time.

5. Dry eyes are very common after LASIK. It usually lasts for two to three months after LASIK, and resolves without further problem. The dryness is usually easily treated with lubricating eye drops.

6. It takes time to adjust to the change in vision after LASIK. Vision may fluctuate mildly for two to three months after LASIK.

Potentially Serious Complications

The chance of having a serious, vision-threatening complication as a consequence of laser vision correction is very low, far less than 1%. But the risk isn't zero, so it is important that you know the risks and be able to put them into perspective.

1. INFECTION - To prevent infection, antibiotic drops are used both before and after LASIK. Post-op infections are extremely rare. When they do occur, they tend to be minor and clear up quickly with treatment. However a small chance of serious infection exists, and it is important to take the prescribed drops as directed and keep all follow-up visits. If there is a problem after the procedure, don't hesitate to call our doctors!

2. UNDER/OVERCORRECTIONS AND REGRESSION - Some laser vision correction patients wind up with either a little more or a little less correction than desired.

There may also a small tendency for the laser-treated eye to return in the direction of its pre-treatment state. Should this happen, you may need a "touch up" procedure at a later date. Alternatively, you can wear a thin pair of glasses to sharpen your vision. For some patients, glasses for use in night driving are all that is needed to deal with a small amount of regression or over and undercorrection.

3. NIGHT VISION PROBLEMS - In the weeks and months following laser vision correction, it is common to see halos or starbursts around bright objects at night. In most, but not all, cases this ceases to be a problem by 4 to 6 months after the procedure.

4. THIN FLAP - When we use the Microkeratome to create the LASIK flap, there is less than 1% chance of a thin flap occurring. Lasering over a thin LASIK flap may cause visually threatening corneal irregularities and haze. So, if one occurs, the flap is replaced and allowed to heal. Within 2 to 3 days, the vision should return to normal. The procedure can be repeated in 3 months.

5. FLAP WRINKLES – May occur when the flap is replaced. Wrinkles also can occur when the patient inadvertently squeezes the eye tightly shut. They are easy to identify and can be removed by simply refloating the flap. Visually significant wrinkles occur in less than 1% of cases.

6. EPITHELIAL INGROWTH - Small cells from the corneal epithelium, the "clear skin" that covers the cornea, can become embedded under the LASIK flap. This occurs in less than 1% of LASIK cases. The cells can start to grow and form a thin sheet of epithelium under the flap. This will affect the vision. The epithelial cells are usually easy to remove by mechanically removing the aberrant epithelial cells.

7. HAZE UNDER THE FLAP - Usually, the corneal tissue under the LASIK flap remains clear. However, the tissue under the flap can become hazy. The haze can look like small pieces of sand (this condition has been called "Sands of the Sahara"). This haze is very uncommon, but has been reported to occur to the point where vision has been affected. The cause of the haze is unknown, and usually responds to steroid eye drops. I have had no patients whose vision has been affected by this haze.

8. PERMANENT UNCORRECTABLE BLURRY VISION OR "GHOST IMAGES" - Rarely, a patient may have corneal irregularity after LASIK that causes blurry vision or "ghost images". "Ghost images" are similar to a TV picture with poor reception; overlapping the main image is an identical, but dim second image. A retreatment may not be able to treat a post-LASIK corneal irregularity.

9. CORNEAL ECTASIA - Creataing a corneal flap for LASIK can cause structural weakening of the cornea. If too much corneal tissue is removed with LASIK, the corneal integrity can be compromised, resulting in a "weakened" cornea that may "bulge" months to years after LASIK. This is called "ectasia" and can cause significant regression of the LASIK treatment, resulting in the recurrence of significant nearsightedness and/or astigmatism. Retreatment is not possible and would even make the regression worse. In the rare case of extreme ectasia, a corneal transplant would be necessary to regain useful vision.

The above complications are rare and can usually be successfully treated. However, treatment may not completely correct these, or other problems, and the patient could, rarely, experience a permanent, non-treatable decrease in their best-corrected vision after LASIK. The chance of "going completely blind" from LASIK is probably zero. In the "worst case" scenario, a patient would require a corneal transplant to correct a LASIK complication.