Explaining Laser Eye Surgery Risks
We all know that one of the great things about living in this modern era is that we can now do things that seem to be very much impossible for us years ago. One of those things aside from the development of the PC and the internet is laser eye surgery.
Being able to stop having to worry about taking your eyeglasses with you everywhere and to avoid getting them broken are more than enough reasons for many people to undergo laser eye surgery.
Nevertheless even though laser eye surgery is understandably very popular these days like all medical procedures it is not without its risks.
In this article we will discuss these risks and complications and talk about what can be done in each instance.
Possible complications that can take place in laser eye surgery
Besides having over or under correction of the eyes, flap wrinkles, and infection as laser eye surgery risks, there have been more dangerous risks that are involved in undergoing such procedure and one of those is having central corneal islands in your eyes.
It is very rare and only 1% of patients suffer from it but central corneal islands have been known to create problems for patients. Essentially central corneal islands occur when tissue is not removed uniformly across the eye.
If it does occur in some cases you can have follow up correction surgery to put it right, but if it is not possible you may end up having to wear contact lenses to correct the problem.
DLK is one more complication that can arise. In most cases this will take place when a number of foreign bodies have gotten themselves trapped under your corneal flap.
Symptoms to this include but are not limited to: pain in the eyes, the sensation of something being trapped in the eye, unusually blurred eyesight and sensibility to bright lights.
If a patient finds him or her self subject to these symptoms, he or she should waste no time in contacting his or her doctor even if the surgery was performed a long time ago. Normally this can be remedied with the subscription of oral and topical medication.
Then there’s the epithelial in-growths which can occur when cells from the corneal epithelium start growing under the corneal flap. This can significantly affect vision.
Also, there is the corneal ecstasia that may weaken the cornea and make it bulge after surgery. This occurs when the surgeon creates a deeper incision during the flap creation process then necessary or when he or she removes too much corneal tissue.
When this occurs the only available option is to perform a corneal transplant to put the damage right.
So these are a few of the eye surgery complications that can take place, it’s important to remember that these complications only happen to a very small percentage of people undergoing laser eye surgery.