LASIK Recovery

LASIK surgery procedure is relatively painless and reasonably less hazardous for your health. There may be some temporary discomfort but recovery is fast. A patient recovering with LASIK surgery may observe discomforts like

• Mild sensation of irritation and scratchiness in the eye which may continue for a day or two.
• Watering of eyes and symptoms of dry eyes , and
• Hazy or blurry vision for a week.

However, these discomforts are usually temporary and take less time for healing. To LASIK Recovery better and easy patients should

• Go for regular or weekly follow-ups.
• Surgeons prescribe antibiotic medicines and anti-inflammatory eye-drops to control pain, reduce inflammations, possibility of infections and other related post-surgical risks. The dosage and duration varies with each technique. Patients should generally use the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops for a week or so while the artificial tears may be used for a longer period (often up to six months in patients with dry eyes after LASIK).
• Patient should restrain from vigorous sports and strenuous physical activities for quite some time.
• It is advised to protect laser eye at night time for the first week or so with a plastic shield.
• Tinted glasses with ultraviolet protection are needed when out in the sun for the first three months.
• Depending on the vision correction attempted, driving may be unsafe for 1-2 weeks.

From several published clinical data and study reports on LASIK procedure, it is found that there are significant variations in the way patients recover after a LASIK Surgery. Initially, LASIK was used to treat the higher levels of myopia (up to -12 D) where it was thought likely that the result would be unsatisfactory using a PRK treatment. In later years, LASIK is being used as an effective surgical procedure for other vision corrections like Hyperopia and Astigmatism.

• For low to moderate degrees of myopia (-1.00 to -6.00D) the majority of patients achieve a very satisfactory result following LASIK. With higher corrections up to -10.00D, patients may have more visual side effects such as haloes. In this higher correction group, about 40% achieve 6/6 vision unaided and about 75% achieve 6/12 vision unaided.
• Correction of astigmatism is possible up to 4 dioptres and success is slightly less than those results for myopia without astigmatism.
• Results for treatment of hyperopia with LASIK, however, show less stability (compared to myopia results) with lessening of the effects after two years (regression). No more than 6 dioptres can be corrected as the visual quality is reduced if more is corrected.

Studies reveal that serious complications affecting both eyes are very rare in LASIK Surgery. But they can and do happen. If this happened to you, you would be left with permanently poor vision in both eyes, perhaps unable to work, read, or drive. Therefore, clinics providing LASIK surgery must have an outpatient service, where patients can visit for a routine check up and emergency follow-up cares.