Eye Vision Correction Surgery to Remove Refractive Errors

Vision correction surgery is needed to remove the eye refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism and presbyopia.

Generally people use the contact lenses or eye glasses to prevent or reduce the effects of myopia or hyperopia. But there are many options available to eliminate or reduce the use and dependency on glasses or contact lenses.

An eye vision correction surgery is required in case you need a permanent solution against the refractive errors. Vision correction surgery can benefit the patients of myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism.

To get the suitable treatment first we need to understand about these refractive errors

Myopia - Myopia or nearsightedness occurs when you are able to see the objects near to you clearly but the far objects are appeared blurry. In this case the eyeball might be longer as compared to its normal size or might be curving in sharply. This size and shape of eyeball lead to the shift of light form retina and results in fuzzy vision of far objects.

Hyperopia - In the case of hyperopia or farsightedness the opposite signs are noticed, the size of eyeball might be shorter than the normal eyeballs or the shape of cornea might be too flat. This change causes blurry near objects and clear far objects.

Astigmatism - Astigmatism is referred to as the distorted vision. In this case the shape of eyeball surface is somewhat irregular as compared to normal eyeball surface. This causes in creation of many focal points and the distorted vision.

Presbyopia - In this condition eyes progressively looses the ability to focus on near objects with the age. Most of the times people with age between 40 to 50 years feels this problem for the first time as they can not read the objects which are closer to them

During the vision correction surgery the shape of cornea is changed so that without the use of contact lens or eyeglasses the light focuses on the back of eye.

Vision Correction Solutions

There are various surgery procedures and option available today to treat the vision problems.

1. Radial keratotomy (RK) - It is a popular treatment procedure for astigmatism; in this, a precision calibrated diamond knife is used to make cuts circumferentially parallel to the edge of cornea.
2. Intracorneal ring segments (ICR).
3. PRELEX (presbyopic refractive lens exchange) or clear lens extraction.
4. Phakic intraocular lens implants.
5. Laser vision correction - Under laser vision correction surgery there are some surgery procedures which includes the use of laser.

I - Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) - During this surgery a small amount of tissue from the corneal stroma is removed by vaporization using an excimer laser to change the shape of the anterior central cornea.

II - Laser in Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) - Lasik eye surgery also a laser eye surgery procedure. It is same as Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) procedure but it provides a faster patient recovery and can remove all three types of refractive errors Myopia, Hyperopia and Astigmatism instead of only astigmatism in PRK

Some other Laser surgery procedures which are not so popular are:

III - Femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK or iLASIK

IV - Conductive Keratoplasty (CK)

V - Laser thermal Keratoplasty (LTK)

Among all the above surgeries LASIK is the best option for vision correction.