LASIK is widely performed throughout the world, because of the trust built on it, because of its success rate, which is more than 95%. Safety and effectiveness are the key factors for choosing this laser surgery procedure. So, it is unusual extremely for any of LASIK patient to result in blindness from LASIK surgery.
Risks After LASIK
Since LASIK is a surgery procedure, complications are quite common, just like other surgery procedures. However, the number of risks and complications are less and less intensive compared to the other surgeries, since the procedure is performed by using laser.
The most frequently occurred risks and complications can be glare, halos, dry eyes and other disturbances of vision. Though they occur frequently, these are purely temporary and last in just a few days or weeks. Going blind or vision loss is technically possible with severe complications, however, these are very uncommon.
Legal Blindness
According to the AFB (American Foundation for the Blind), legal blindness is considered when the vision becomes 20/200 or worse. The problem of vision, such as blur, dry eye is common, but is temporary and after recovery, it becomes completely normal and after recovery, vision gets much improved. The Food and Drug Administration from the US has reported that vision loss is possible, technically, after the LASIK surgery and these outcomes cannot be corrected, even after additional surgery, contact lenses or eye glasses. However, these severe and intense complications are very rare as LASIK has very high success rate and even small corrections can be done with an enhancement procedure.
Possible Complications
The possible complication that may result in vision loss or blindness is basically is infection. Causes for this infection are many.
Preventing Complications
Severe complications, such as infections must be prevented on higher priority, at any point after the surgery. The following precautions can prevent or reduce the possibilities of these infections.
- Quite important factor, even before undergoing the LASIK surgery is pre-LASIK assessment. Accurate prescription can only determine the suitable and appropriate procedure. Qualification and expertise of the surgeon proposing the suitable surgery play a key role in this context.
- Success of the LASIK surgery is the primary key factor that influence the overall outcome of the procedure. when appropriate procedure is selected and surgery is performed successfully, the success rate reaches more than 90%.
- Last, but most important factor is the post operative care. As long as enough care is taken all possible complications can be ruled out. In case of any accidental issues happen to the eyes, those should be addressed immediately, without delay, to the respective eye surgeon, so that further complications can be completely eliminated.
So, don’t worry about going blindness, as so far no such conditions are reported by the medical authorities and no studies and reports have indicated such information.