The Procedures of LASIK Eye Surgery

Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 11:20 pm Post in Vision Surgery

LASIK surgery becomes more and more popular among people to correct abnormal eye refractive index permanently. It is a relatively easy and painless operation with mature technology. But it is a surgery after all which may also have some risks. So it is better to know the procedures of LASIK completely to decrease the surgical risks.

The surgery is always carried out with the patient’s eyes wide open and two both eyes are operated at the same time. If you insist on having one eye treated at one time, that is fine, too. During the operation, the patients are sometimes given a mild sedative like Valium to guarantee a more safe surgery.

On the whole, LASIK surgery is divided into three steps, including creating a flap of corneal tissue, remodeling cornea with the help of laser underneath the flap and repositioning the flap. However, there are some details on LASIK that should pay attention to.

A number of eye drops to the eyes is required 15 minutes before surgery to anesthetize eye and prevent any eye infection. Then a special solution is applied to clean the surrounding areas of your eyes. After that, one of your eyes will be covered to avoid any distraction during the operation.
You can lie down in a bed with your eyes in line up with the laser, and an eyelid holder will help to make sure your eyes are wide open to do convenience to your surgery. There is usually no infection before the surgery, and you may not feel any pain on your eyes except for some discomfort. But do not worry because the discomfort is normal.
Suction ring device which is ring-shaped will be applied to your eyes and some pressures will be placed on your eyes to create suction. The pressure will be enhanced sufficiently to induce dimmed vision or even completely blacked out. But that is fine because this is a common symptom during the operation for making an ideal flap.
A microkeratome which is in fact a surgical blade is used to cut a thin corneal flap once your eyes are fixed still. There is also an alternative way to cut the flap by laser.
After the cutting procedure is finished, the suction ring will be removed from your eyes. And the doctor will lift the flap, hold it back and dry the exposed tissue.
You will be asked to stare at a blinking light which is usually red-orange light so that the laser beam can be projected into your eyes directly. With the help of a series of short pluses, the laser beam will remove corneal tissues from the stroma which is located in the middle section of the cornea. After that, your cornea is reshaped. During this procedure, a computer will control the strength and location of laser beam so that your pupil will be positioned accurately even though your eyes have already moved. So you can put your heart at peace during the corneal reshaping period. As long as the computer and device works well, you can be sure to have an accurate reshaping.
Finally the flap will be replaced back to normal at the original position without any stitches.

After all the procedures being implemented, your LASIK surgery is finished. Knowing the details of surgery will be helpful to you.