Know the Real Risks of LASIK

LASIK is still one of the top elective surgeries individuals get today and with good reason. The success rate for improved vision is very high, the satisfaction rate for the procedure among people that have had eye surgery hovers at around 98% and the surgery is extremely fast (only takes minutes) with a quick recovery period. Understanding the risks of laser eye surgery will help you be a better candidate for the procedure as well as have a faster recovery time.

First of all, the most important thing to understand about LASIK is that in a tiny percentage of cases - vision was actually worse after the procedure. Generally this has been due to the individual undergoing the procedure not letting their surgeon know about existing medical conditions or other factors (such as an eye injury in the previous 12 months) that could affect the outcome of the laser eye surgery.

Other vision factors that have occurred in a small number of cases include double vision, blurriness, halos or slight problems seeing during the evening hours. In many cases these issues were corrected with a second LASIK procedure after the first surgery completely healed and it was apparent that the vision issues weren't going to be corrected. Contrary to what you may have heard, as of 2008, there are no reported cases of blindness caused by laser eye surgery.

Another risk of LASIK surgery is you. Not following after care instructions is another reason some people do not get the outcome that they hoped for with their LASIK procedure. The two most common reasons is the wearing of eye makeup (which would entail not only introducing bacteria to the eye but also touching and tugging on the eye for eye makeup removal). Another issue that commonly causes problems is not completing the course of antibiotic eye drops you are given after surgery. It's very important to take the full course you are prescribed to ensure that your surgery area heals completely with no issues or if the roundness of your cornea achieved during your laser eye surgery is compromised by something like an infection that develops - it can affect your long term LASIK results and lower your vision quality.

Getting your cornea to a nice round shape to enhance your vision may lead to overcorrection of your vision. It's impossible to predict with 100% certainty how an individual will respond to their laser eye surgery and overcorrection can occur but it doesn't happen often. Again, this is where a second laser eye surgery will need to be performed and will usually bring the vision a normal range.

Those are just a few of the main risks that you take with laser eye surgery. Although still elective, LASIK is still considered one of the safest surgical procedures with one of the highest satisfaction rates for people that have undergone this surgery.