Laser Eye Surgery, Do You Know What It is?

We have all heard about someone that has had a "laser eye surgery" performed with success and sometimes we think if we should have one too as an alternative to wearing glasses or contact lenses. But, what is a "laser eye surgery"?

When we talk about it we are referring to the name the ophthalmologists use: Lasik eye surgery, which is actually a procedure that merges two previous eye surgery techniques, with better results in terms of vision improvement as well as minor incidents of infection and reduced recovery time.

The term Lasik is an acronym for Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis. Succesfull refractive eye surgery can help to reduce common vision disorders like miopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. In most cases you will not need to use glasses or contact lenses anymore.

Lasik eye surgery was developed as a synthesis of keratomileusis (improving the refractive state of the cornea) and photorefractive keratectomy (changing the shape of the cornea). Lasik quickly became accepted for its greater accuracy, with very few complications when compared to either of the prior procedure types and shortened recovery time for patients.

Laser eye surgery is performed with a mild sedative and patients remain awake and aware, though relaxed from the sedative. Additionally, the use of anesthetic eye drops help to decrease movement and responsiveness of eye muscles so that the procedure can be more safely carried out.

The surgery procedure is as follows, a very fine blade is used to make a series of tiny flaps in the surface of the cornea. These flaps are then folded back to reveal the stroma, which is the middle section of the cornea. The lifting and folding back of these flaps is the part of this procedure that tends to be somewhat uncomfortable for the patient.

After that, an excimer laser is used to reshape the corneal stroma. What happens is that, the extra ?bumps? of the cornea are vaporized. The process is very gentle because the laser is able to release the molecular bonds that hold the cells of the corneal surface together, thus leaving the adjacent stroma undamaged.

In this second step, when the flap is lifted, the patient?s vision will become blurry and filled with white light that surrounds the orange laser light. This can be somewhat disorienting to the patient, but knowledge of the procedure alleviates much of the ?feeling of encountering the unknown?. Since the procedure is very short in duration, this period passes relatively quickly.

Once the procedure is complete, the flaps are held in place with a natural adhesive until healing takes place. Patients should use a darkened pair of goggles to protect their eyes from bright lights and protective shields to prevent rubbing of the eyes when asleep, they are advised to avoid sunlight and other known irritants over the few days following the procedure. Recovery is very rapid and most patients feel great after only a day or two.

Jorge Sanchez is an accomplished Webmaster and publisher of http://www.Laser-Eye-Surgery-Advise.com where he provides more advise on eye surgery solutions, corrective eye laser surgery and details on how does laser eye surgery works.