Medical Tourism: Corrective Laser Eye Surgery

More and more people are turning to medical tourism to meet their health care needs. And who can blame them? With skyrocketing costs and seemingly endless waiting lists, medical travel is a worthy option to consider. World-class facilities, highly qualified doctors, and state-of-the-art technology are common among many medical destinations.

With the amazing advances in lasers, combined with the creation of new and safer refractive surgical techniques within the past ten years, there are more people heading to their friendly eye doctors to have their vision improved.

Corrective laser eye surgery is a great procedure to couple with medical tourism. It is relatively safe, quick, and the recovery time is short. There is minimal post-operative pain involved.

Let?s take a look at the four most popular corrective laser eye surgery procedures:

- Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) is for nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism eye conditions. This is the most common corrective laser eye surgery. In this procedure, a surgical incision is made to the cornea, creating a flap that is folded out of the way, allowing the surgeon to use the laser for correction. Since a flap is created on the cornea, healing is faster because the flap is replaced and allowed to reattach to the cornea. The entire procedure only takes about 15 minutes, with only 30 to 60 seconds of actual lasering. Many patients experience better vision as early as the day after surgery.

- Laser Epithelial Keratomileusis (LASEK) is similar to LASIK, except that the flap is created in the epithelium, rather than in the cornea.

- Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) is for persons who are nearsighted, who have mild to moderate farsightedness, and astigmatism. The surgeon uses the laser to remove tiny tissue on the surface of the cornea.

- Conductive Keratoplasty (CK) uses a probe as thin as a strand of human hair, utilizing radio frequency (RF) energy. The surgeon uses the probe to reshape the cornea by shrinking small areas of the tissue.

How do these corrective laser eye surgery procedures improve one?s quality of life? Patients who had these procedures were surveyed and noted the following:

- Ability to see on waking

- Freedom from glasses and contact lenses

- Improvement in personal safety

- Better participation in sports and fitness activities

As with any surgery, there are risks involved, and the wise patient will do well to be aware of any and all possible side effects and complications. Some of the most common risks involved in corrective laser eye surgery are:

- Loss of vision

- Dry eyes

- Eye discomfort (usually during the first 24 hours after the surgery) - Irregular astigmatism

- Corneal haze or glaring

- Overcorrected or undercorrected vision

- Inability to wear contact lenses in the future

- Loss of corneal flap, requiring a corneal graft

- Scarring

- Infection

- Glare around lights, including difficulties with night vision and night driving

Some people who may not be good candidates for corrective laser eye surgery includes those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts, and herpes infections of the eye.

It?s important to remember to have a companion in your medical travel to drive and/or accompany you to and from your procedure.

After weighing pros and cons, it?s good to know that there are world-class eye care facilities, offering inexpensive, modern treatment in many medical destinations, such as India, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. When costs may be reduced by half and a nice vacation in a desirable destination gets thrown into the deal, why not consider medical tourism for corrective laser eye surgery?

http://www.medical-travel-asia.com is dedicated in telling the world that Asia is THE place for medical tourism and the right place to come and seek medical help. Asia has so many things to offer to the world, we simply want to tell people WHY.

On top of that, we also happen to know where are the best beaches here in Asia to recuperate after a surgery. Come to Asia if you are seeking medical treatment, get well, and take back some beautiful holiday memories at the same time.

However, http://www.medical-travel-asia.com is NOT engaged in rendering medical service or advice and the information provided on this website is not a substitute for a professional medical opinion. Our website is purely for educational and informational purposes. If you have a medical problem, please contact a qualified health professional.