Risks and Complications of PRK Laser Eye Surgery

You may be familiar with the benefits of PRK laser eye surgery, however have you done your research and educated yourself about the risks and complications that are involved? Their are a few things that advertisements on laser vision correction do not tell you and it is essential that you know before going through the procedure of vision correction.

You must keep in mind that any surgical procedure carries risks and laser eye surgery is not any different. Some risks that are involved in the procedure include:

- Vision loss. Sometimes things do not work out for the best, some patients who were told that their vision will improve after the procedure actually result in worse vision than they initially had prior to the procedure. In this case you may have to have another procedure to attempt to correct the issue.

- New visual problems may emerge. It is not uncommon that after a vision correction surgery, some patients may infect develop halos or glares and even double vision as a result of a PRK eye surgery.

- Wrong treatment. Reshaping the cornea with laser treatment is a delicate procedure. Occasionally, the cornea may not be reshaped properly and have too little material removed or infect they might eve have too much removed.  This will result in an inaccurate procedure.

- Dry eyes. It is very common that many individuals will have dry eyes upon a successful surgery. In this case eye drops and healing time will usually correct or help the problem. However keep in min that in other serious cases, an additional procedure is required to prevent tear loss from the eyes which in turn causes the eyes to be dry in the first place.

- An infection or healing problem. With any surgical procedure, their is always a possibility of infection. It is very important to take all medications prescribed after your surgery and consult with your doctor if you feel their might have been an issue. An infection can delay or complicate the healing process so it is very important to follow up with the doctor after your surgery.

- Corrected vision may fade over time. It is important for you to realize that with laser eye surgery, it might be possible that the results do not last forever. The cornea will change shape as you age which means your vision will change over time. Laser vision correction is a fairly new technology that is available for us so we don’t really have long term data to compare results to. Will we know if it will last forever? No we don’t but some doctors warranty their work so that if your vision does change, they will do another procedure free of charge.

It is important that you discuss with your doctor about the risks and complications that might involve you and whether you are a successful candidate for PRK laser vision correction.