Wondering About LASIK Complications?

Like any invasive procedure, LASIK comes with some risks however the majority of these are minimal. Here is an overview of the common issues that patients experience after laser eye surgery and what can be done to remedy those complaints.

Although LASIK carries a nearly 95% satisfaction rate - more than any other elective procedure - there are still people that have unrealistic expectations of that laser eye surgery will do for them. Usually this is a case of the surgeon not fully informing (or the patient not fully listening) to what the expected outcome of the individual's surgery will be. Your personal health, habits and how well you follow directions during the recovery phase will all affect your LASIK outcome. Make sure you understand going in that not everyone gets perfect 20/20 vision with this procedure but a huge majority of people do get vastly improved vision.

Undercorrection and overcorrection can also be an issue with traditional LASIK, however it is less of an issue where Wavefront or iLASIK is used because the surgeon can use a 3-D map to see all the anomalies on the eye that could affect the outcome of the surgery and fewer areas are missed during the procedure. If over or undercorrection does occur - it can usually be remedied with a second procedure.

Induced astigmatism is a rare issue but has occurred with some individuals. This is usually attributed to overcorrection in one eye and can usually be corrected to normal range vision with one follow up procedure.

Dry eyes are very common. Most patients report a sensation of "grittiness" to their eyes after surgery for a short period of time and this is perfectly normal. Using the lubricating eye drops as directed by your doctor will usually remedy this feeling and make it a non-issue. Additionally, using the eye drops as directed will greatly lessen your chances of post-surgery infection.

Hazy vision is another problem a few patients face after laser eye surgery, especially PRK where the recovery time is longer and the outer layer of the eye will need time to regrow completely. Less than 1% of patients that will undergo PRK will experience serious haze and in most cases the condition can be treated by either administering a drug called Mitromycin C or a follow procedure of mechanical debridement.

Night glare or halos at night are sometimes reported. This is caused by the pupil dilating at night in low light and the rays within are scattered before they reach the retina. For patients that have large pupils or have a propensity to develop halos as ascertained in the consultation, the surgeon may choose to go with Custom LASIK as the vision correction method of choice to make the chances of halos very small.

These are some of the complications that some patients have experienced in the laser eye surgeries. The good news is that most post surgery issues can be corrected with a follow up procedure which means that the actual long term complications from LASIK are very small.