Complications of LASIK Eye Surgery

LASIK Complications and Risks

Complications of LASIK eye surgery might occur to any patients who underwent the eye surgeries. LASIK eye surgery, just like any other surgeries, has its own risks and complications. How risky is it really to undergo LASIK? How common are the complications?

Numerous studies in the late 1990s indicated that up to 5 percent of people who underwent LASIK experienced some type of problems. However, many expert LASIK surgeons these days are reporting that the rates can be held below one percent if LASIK candidates are selected carefully. Even when complications do occur, the surgeons can resolve them through laser re-treatments.

The following description discusses some laser eye surgery complications that might occur with LASIK surgery.

Common Complications of LASIK Eye Surgery

Under correction: This problem usually occurs when the laser has not removed an adequate amount of tissue. Regardless of how meticulously a surgeon calculate a correction and calibrate a laser, several factors can still affect the outcome of the procedure.

Over correction: This happens when the laser has removed too much corneal tissue, which is a normal swelling that occurs after any surgical procedure. Studies have also revealed that overcorrection happen because of the same factors as outlined for under correction.

Too Small an Optical Zone: This complication commonly occurs when the optical zone is smaller than the dilated pupil. People who are commonly victims of this problem are those with very large pupils or very large corrections.

Decentered Ablation: It is caused by one or more of the significant patient eye movement during the laser treatment and incorrect centering of the laser beam. In some cases, this problem is said to cause optical aberrations and astigmatism, glare, starbursts or contrast sensitivity problems.

Flap and Operative Complications of LASIK Eye Surgery

Dry Eye Syndrome: Reports indicated that it has developed into the most common complication after laser vision correction, which affects the majority of all LASIK patients.

Free Cap: This complication occurs during the creation of the flap, especially in patients with a flatter curve on the surface of their eye. But this is rarer than the one mentioned above.

Wrinkles in the Flap: Wrinkles commonly appear when a patient rubs or squeezes his eye too tightly in the first few hours following the procedure.

Incomplete, Irregular, Decentered Flap or Button Hole of Flap: According to some experts, this LASIK complication occurs at the time of flap creation.

Epithelial Abrasion: This usually occurs at the time of flap creation, especially the older patients, ages 45 and above. This is more common than the two complications listed above.

Displaced Flap: This problem appears from rubbing or trauma to the eye within the first 24 to 48 hours after the LASIK surgery. This is normally very minimal after three months.

Infection: This is an extremely rare occurrence.

Inflammation under the Flap: This occurs when the tissue under the flap reacts to minutes traces of microorganism toxins.

Debris under the Flap: This complication is fairly common for the reason that the tear film normally has particles of oil and other material like make up and lint from clothing.

So you've learned about the complications of LASIK eye surgery. Find the right LASIK eye surgeon to understand whether or not you're a good LASIK candidate and, thus, avoid such LASIK complications.

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