As the term surgery sounds as a big, dangerous and complicated term, it may sound unsafe or filled with complications to anyone. The term laser, which is a far more complicated, because of the new technology, added to this term surgery gives some more complication to the laser eye surgery. However, this is not the case and it is not unsafe, but less complicated compared to any other surgery in the medical industry. One fact that is worth reminding is that every surgery has its own pros and cons.
What Medical Industry & Experts Say?
The medical industry and medical experts emphasize that the laser eye surgery is one of the safest and elective surgery existing in the contemporary world. Laser may sound a bit advanced technology, however this technology exists from 30 years and is well established in most of the countries. Several clinical studies conducted in many countries indicate and show that each of the procedure for correction of the vision using laser is completely safe, with evidences. It is absolutely safe and effective for the surgery qualified patients. One needs to ensure that the person is the right candidate to go through the laser eye surgery.
Facts & Figures
Thousands of studies conducted in analysing the safety and effectiveness of the laser eye surgeries in terms of correcting the refractive errors. So far more than 16 million people have got the Lasik eye surgery performed for better vision. Recently the best 97 studies out of these thousands of studies have been analyzed in terms of safety and efficacy of the laser eye surgery. The study considered 67,893 eyes treated with Lasik laser eye surgery. The results are as the following.
- Almost close to 100% of the Lasik eyes operated with the laser eye surgery have been satisfied the standards of legal driving.
- More than 90% of the patients have achieved the perfect vision, indicated with 20/20 vision.
- More than 99% of the patients have the clarity of vision and less than 1% has missed the clarity of vision of two line or more in terms of corrected distance visual acuity.
- Close to 99% of the Lasik patients are happier for the results obtained, in terms of better vision
Apart from the Lasik eye surgery, which is the most commonly performed one, the other laser eye surgeries are ASLA, SMILE, LASEK and PRK. These surgeries are newer compared to Lasik surgery, except the PRK. Including Lasik, all these laser eye surgeries are approved by the respective medical governing bodies, of each of the country.
In addition to the facts, the results also have indicated the possible risks and side-effects possible with inaccurate or unsuccessful surgery or with lesser post-surgery care. The possible risks are the following.
- Dry Eye condition, in which the eyes dry up faster and it needs frequent lubrication
- Loss of vision sharpness, initially immediately after the surgery, but the condition gets resolved within 6 months, in most of the cases
- Under or over refractive error correction during the surgery, which can be corrected with additional enhancement surgery, possible technically
- Flap problems triggered with rubbing the eyes accidentally
The risks and complications are quite common with any surgery and the experts emphasize that risks and complications associated with the laser eye surgery are much lesser compared to any other surgery, where blade or incision is used.