Refractive Surgery

Refractive Eye Surgery is any eye surgery used to improve the refractive state of the eye and decrease or eliminate dependency on glasses or contact lenses. This can include various methods of surgical remodeling of the cornea or cataract surgery. The most common methods today use excimer lasers to reshape the curvature of the cornea. 

 

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Refractive surgery might be a good option for you if you:

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• Myopia (Nearsightedness): For people with myopia, distant objects seem blurry, while nearby objects appear to be clearer. It happens because of the mismatch in focusing power and eye length.

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• Hyperopia (Farsightedness): It is a common vision problem in which people see distant objects clearly, but objects nearby may seem blurry. This condition is also known as farsightedness.

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• Astigmatism: This happens when the cornea flattens or curves unevenly. It disrupts the focus of both near and distant vision. Many people suffer from a combination of myopia, hyperopia with astigmatism. hyperopia with astigmatism.

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• Presbyopia: It refers to long-sightedness caused by the loss of elasticity of the eye lens generally occurring in middle and old age. It is also called the ‘Aging Eye’ condition.

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Treatment:

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• PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy) - 

This procedure involves the careful removal of the topmost layer of the cornea also known as the epithelium, this is followed by laser delivery which reshapes the corneal surface – to correct the refractive power of the eye. A contact lens is placed for a few days to support the healing of the eye, the epithelium is very thin (50 microns) and usually grows back within 3 days.

 

• LASIK (Flap Based Procedure) - 

This is a very popular procedure and involves the creation of a flap (100-120 micron) in the superficial layer of the cornea. After the flap is created, it is lifted and the residual bed is then treated with the laser. At the end of the procedure, the flap is placed back on the corneal bed and the patient is discharged with medication.

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• Refractive Lenticule Extraction – ReLEX SMILE / FLEX

During this eye surgery, surgeons do not make any flap and remove a thin layer of the cornea with a specialized and most advanced laser eye surgery system called SMILE (Small Incision Lenticule Extraction). With advanced technology in place, laser operation for the eyes is considered the best option for treating all kinds of refractive errors.

 

• Lens Based surgeries - 

Lens-based surgeries involve ‘in the eye -intraocular’ procedures to correct the spectacle power. It can be further divided into Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL) and Refractive lens exchange