You may be a little worried about the “rebound” of myopia surgery. We hope you will be more objective and relaxed after reading the following. In recent years, more than 500,000 people in China undergo laser refractive surgery each year to correct myopia. For every myopic patient who wants to have the surgery, it is normal to be a little apprehensive, even though he or she has learned that the safety, effectiveness and predictability of laser myopia surgery are very certain. When he or she discusses the surgery with friends and family, it seems that he or she always hears statements like, “So-and-so had surgery and rebounded soon after,” or “So-and-so had surgery for five years and still wears glasses, right?” So much so that many patients cannot help but say to me again and again before they go on stage, “I am not afraid that it will be unsafe or that my vision will not improve, but I am just worried about the long-term effect, such as three or five years, or even ten or twenty years, will it bounce back or not?” I tell my patients, “Considering the surgery after a thorough examination and evaluation, and designing the parameters of the surgery after a comprehensive analysis, means that rebound is no longer an issue for you. The vast majority will not bounce back!” Information such as “so-and-so had surgery and rebounded” or “so-and-so wore glasses after surgery” is usually false information that does not stand up to scrutiny, either because the patient has new myopia, or because high myopia with thin corneas was designed to be mild, and some patients Some patients are even told before surgery that they still need to wear glasses, and some high myopia corrections match the expected amount of correction, but are too high to be done in full and still need to wear glasses, but in other people’s eyes they mistakenly think that they are “unsuccessful and rebounded. Very few patients have a good recovery of vision in the early postoperative period, but after a period of time, the distance vision gradually decreases and a mild myopia is found, which is not always a “regression” or “rebound”. The regression that occurs within 3 to 6 months after surgery is generally related to corneal trauma healing and repair, and can be controlled by the standard application of postoperative eye drops. The longer the time after laser surgery, the less likely it is that a “rebound” will occur, let alone a “rebound” of more than a few years, usually for other reasons, not directly related to the surgery. Even if there is a “rebound”, it is predictable in most cases, and there are very few “rebound” cases that actually exceed the predicted value. It is also reassuring to know that the amount of “rebound” is insignificant compared to the original myopia, for example, usually less than 5%. For example, mild myopia of 300 degrees or less rarely “bounces back”! Even if the amount of “rebound” is 25 degrees, it hardly affects the clarity of vision at a distance. For moderate myopia between 300 and 600 degrees, even a “rebound” of 50 degrees will still not have a significant impact on the patient’s distance vision. For high myopia of 600 degrees or more, although the possibility of rebound increases compared to mild to moderate myopia, in terms of volume, most postoperative “rebound” will not exceed 100 degrees, provided that the preoperative corneal thickness is at normal values. In other words, even if there is a “rebound” of high myopia, most people can still get away with not wearing glasses. What is “rebound”? Laser cornea surgery is cutting on the cornea, equivalent to “cutting” a lens, myopia correction method is to make the cornea flat, the accuracy is very ideal, but the corneal tissue is living tissue, after cutting can have a certain proliferation force. If the proliferation is uniform on the cutting surface, it will not cause any significant change in myopia. If the central proliferation is slightly more than the peripheral area, the central part of the cornea will rise slightly, although very slightly, causing a mild myopia, or “rebound”. This was observed in the PRK era, and the amount of rebound can increase with myopia. However, LASEK/epi-LASIK and LASIK, including femtosecond LASIK, are not prone to rebound. Of course, if the procedure performed is not laser surgery, but a refractive lens procedure such as ICL for ultra-high myopia, there is no rebound. The “rebound” can be intervened. For example, if you determine that there will be a “rebound” of 50 degrees during the design of the surgery based on your age, base prescription, and progression, you can have an additional 50 degrees removed and then stabilize 3-6 months after surgery, and it will be very close to “0”. Also, the eye drops given by the surgeon after surgery are a very reliable way to control corneal proliferation, and as long as the patient uses the drops as prescribed, the “rebound” can be stopped. There are some cases that require caution: for example, the myopia before surgery is not actually stable, and new myopia appears in 2012 after surgery, with a lengthening of the eye axis, but the patient mistakenly believes that it is a “rebound” (to prevent this: the preoperative history is important, for example, if it is judged that there will be an increase of 100 degrees in the future, theoretically the surgery is designed to correct 100 degrees more). Theoretically, an additional 100 degrees can be corrected when the surgery is designed). Pre-operative corneal thinning or dilated corneal factors, post-operative corneal protrusion or dilatation or conical cornea (the probability of this is very, very small under standard surgery!) The patient is also mistaken for a “rebound”. Hint: The appearance of new myopia after surgery is not necessarily a rebound, but needs to be analyzed and evaluated after eye parameter testing. If it is determined to be a “rebound”, the examination will confirm that it is caused by corneal proliferation and increased thickness of the central zone, and after stabilization, if the conditions for reoperation are met after a thorough examination and review, a period of cautious observation can be made after the correction.