LASIK After Cataract Surgery
A special type of Intraocular lens (or P-IOL) implants in cataract extraction surgery can somewhat correct refractive errors, particularly low to moderate levels of nearsightedness and longsightedness. But, no consistent result is obtained so far for the cases of astigmatism. To correct astigmatism, there is a suite of laser technology platform including Lasik, PRK, LASEK, or Epi-LASIK which are usually performed on patients if they develop astigmatism after a cataract surgery. In fact, in most cases, patients experience residual refractive errors after a cataract surgery which the Intraocular Lens implant fails to overcome. The presence of residual refractive error thus gives rise to the problem of astigmatism where a patient finds difficulty in near vision. Therefore, surgeons prefer to perform an additional surgery or LASIK after cataract surgery.
To perform LASIK After Cataract Surgery, surgeons have to carry out a complicated clinical testing and adjustment calculation technique so as to assure a predictable and stable result in vision correction. First of all, the process involves adjustments in the power of the Intraocular Lens for individual patient. This requires a process of complicated calculation. It is observed that if no power adjustment is done for myopia before the cataract surgery, then the patient may otherwise develop high level of farsightedness after the cataract surgery. This situation is commonly referred as the hyperopic surprise. With the application of modern day advanced Intraocular Lens technology, the problem related to adjustment of refractive power has been controlled to some extent. However, experiments and clinical data are yet to establish a standard for calculating the power of Intraocular Lens so that the problem of residual error can be minimized significantly and more accurate power correction can be obtained.
In addition to the power adjustment and the post-operative astigmatic vision correction, LASIK after cataract surgery essentially reduces the possibility of lens displacement.
