The success rate of laser eye surgery is more than 95% on an overall, considering most of these surgeries. In rest of the 5% cases, enhancement procedures can attempt further corrections. The enhancement surgery is not second laser surgery, since it is considered as a touch up procedure, to make necessary corrections, after basic LASIK surgery. However, though in very rare cases, there may be need to undergo laser eye surgery, second time. The answer for such query is yes, technically.
However, getting laser eye surgery twice is not as simple as it sounds. Since each of the eye condition and patient’s case is unique, maximum care has to be taken to determine, whether second procedure is required, possible and safe or not.
Possibility For Second Surgery
There are various factors that demand second surgery. Each of the patients has to be judged exclusively, based on these factors and so expert opinion is needed in each of these cases. The key technical factor to consider here is the total amount of tissue required left in the eye and the amount removed previously, in the previous laser eye surgery.
Theoretically, a detailed assessment is conducted by the surgeon, based on specific conditions, before recommending the procedure for second time. More detailed assessment is mandatory as there are certain risks associated, when the same laser surgery is conducted for the second time. Detailed assessment is mandatory here, because there are more vision related problems experienced by any human being as he or she grows older. The root cause for the new vision problem after the laser eye surgery may not be only from refractive error, but also from Presbyopia, cataract, glaucoma and many more sources. In such instances, the same procedure is not recommended by the surgeons. The root cause has to be found and the appropriate procedure is recommended. In results of these pre-assessments usually, rule out the need for the same laser eye surgery to undergo again.
When Presbyopia is developed, treatment for this problem is different from the regular laser procedure, though modern procedures offer healing of this condition. And in cases of cataract, this condition cannot be treated through laser eye surgery and other treatment procedures have to be explored accordingly.
Hence, lesser than 5% of the laser eye surgery patients do experience smaller to bigger problems related to vision and most of these can further be corrected through enhancement procedure and very minimal percentage of patients may have the other problems. And most of these vision problems in older age have different causes, other than refractive errors, which can be corrected through the laser eye surgeries.