Myopia Laser Correction Guide
What is Lasik?
Lasik, known as quasi-molecular laser in situ keratomileusis, is the safest and most stable method of myopia correction compared to RK and PRK, but its effectiveness varies depending on the surgical equipment, surgeon and operating room conditions.
The results of Lasik treatment in China and abroad have been satisfactory to date, with the vast majority of patients losing their heavy myopia glasses once and for all. The post-treatment naked eye visual acuity generally meets or exceeds the pre-treatment corrected visual acuity with glasses. A national expert wrote “Socio-medical and Psychological Analysis of Lasik Surgery”, pointing out that 98.82% of people felt very satisfied or satisfied with the surgery after Lasik. Therefore, the effectiveness and safety of Lasik is trustworthy.
Principle of Lasik
The surgeon uses a microlaminoplasty system to create a corneal flap, and underneath the flap the corneal stroma is cut precisely with an excimer laser according to the amount of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. The laser emits a series of laser pulses to the cornea, creating a smooth surface in the center of the cornea, which changes the curvature of the cornea and is equivalent to cutting a spectacle lens into the cornea, allowing light to be focused directly on the retina, resulting in clear vision.
Am I a good candidate for Lasik?
Whether you are a good candidate for laser keratomileusis depends on the state of your eyes. In general, you may be a good candidate for laser refractive surgery if your refraction has been stable for two years, your corrected vision is good, and you have no other eye disease. Of course, your doctor will also do a series of detailed examinations of your eyes (including visual acuity, refraction, corneal thickness, corneal topography, intraocular pressure, fundus, etc.) to determine whether you are ready for laser keratomileusis. You also need to be aware of the possible risks and complications of the procedure in order to have realistic expectations of the outcome.
Lasik surgery requirements.
Age 18 years or older;
Stable refractive status (i.e. prescription) for the last two years;
No contraindications to surgery upon examination.
Other conditions.
Stability.
Many years of theory and practice have proven that the flattened front surface of the eye by Lasik, a wonderful laser, will not regenerate and become convex again, so the effect of the treatment is very stable. If the pre-treatment myopia is stable and the anterior and posterior diameters of the eye are no longer elongated, then myopia will not reappear after treatment.
Surgery time.
Approximately 10 minutes for both eyes, with laser treatment taking only a few seconds to a few tens of seconds.
Surgical Status.
Lasik is performed on the cornea, which is devoid of blood vessels and has abundant nerve endings on the surface. However, the nerve endings on the surface of the cornea can be completely anesthetized by surface anesthetic drops, so there is no point of perception and even less pain during the laser treatment. It is possible to go home the same day and there is no need for hospitalization.
Postoperative.
You can open your eyes immediately after surgery, and your vision will return to normal in 3-4 hours, and you can go to school or work the next day. However, a few people may experience tearing and foreign body sensation for a few hours after surgery, so it is advisable to close the eyes and rest.
Is Lasik surgery safe?
So far, the results of the treatment in China and abroad have been satisfactory, and the majority of patients have been able to remove their heavy myopic glasses once and for all. The post-treatment naked eye vision generally meets or exceeds the corrected vision of the pre-treatment glasses. A domestic expert wrote “Socio-medical and psychological analysis of Lasik surgery”, pointing out that 98.82% of people feel very satisfied or satisfied with the surgery after Lasik.
Choosing a Hospital
When you start choosing a hospital for your surgery, you need to pay attention to the following questions.
How many Lasik surgeries does the hospital have experience with?
How many years of Lasik surgery history does the hospital have?
How many Lasik surgeries does the hospital perform per year?
What brand of Lasik equipment does the facility use?
Does the Lasik surgeon have enough experience?
Has the hospital had a history of Lasik failures?
What are the results of people who have undergone Lasik surgery there?
Of course, the above information is difficult to gather as an ordinary patient, so many patients go to the hospital with a little bit of concern, and even abandon the surgery because of incomplete information.
Five advantages of excimer surgery in our hospital
Experience advantage: Excimer laser treatment for myopia was carried out in 2003, with more than 1,000 cases of surgery each year, no dispute, and good results reflected by patients. The very demanding white-collar people, doctors and nurses account for a large proportion of the people operated on at our hospital, which is a good indication that our center is trustworthy.
Expert Advantage: Zhejiang Taizhou Hospital is the only tertiary level A hospital in Taizhou. Myopia laser surgery is personally conducted by the director of the Eye Center, Lin Xianping and the chief ophthalmologist, Fei Anyu (more than 10,000 cases of successful surgery experience), and examined by doctors with thousands of cases of clinical experience.
Equipment advantage: We not only have the most advanced examination equipment in the world – Orbscan Ⅱz anterior segment analysis system made in the United States, but also the latest generation of excimer laser system made by VISX, which is the most advanced equipment in the world for correcting refractive errors and has 85% market share in the United States. Its unique patented three-dimensional eye active tracking technology allows for safer and more precise treatment.
Specialized advantages: The Eye Center is one of the key disciplines of Taizhou Hospital, with more than ten first-class experts and complete equipment. It has fully carried out all the surgeries that can be carried out in China, and can effectively avoid and control adverse reactions to surgery.
Price advantage: LASIK surgery fee of 5000 yuan for both eyes, SBK (excimer laser anterior subelastic corneal abrasion) in our center charges 6000 yuan for both eyes.
Myopia treatment consultation telephone: 0576-85227088, 85278888.
Pre-operative examination
Once you have chosen the hospital where you wish to have your surgery, you will need to undergo a special preoperative examination before the surgery.
Lasik pre-surgery examination content
Once you have decided to have myopia laser surgery, you must have a thorough and systematic eye examination, which includes
Visual acuity examination: including bare eye vision and best corrected visual acuity with lenses.
Refractive examination: including computerized optometry, dilated optometry and re-testing. The correctness of optometry directly affects the outcome of surgery.
Anterior segment and fundus examination: focus on corneal transparency, corneal scars, cloudy crystals, and fundus examination for vitreous turbidity and fundus lesions.
Intraocular pressure examination : to rule out the possibility of high intraocular pressure and glaucoma.
Corneal thickness measurement : For those whose central corneal thickness is less than 500 μm, if the patient is highly myopic, attention should be paid to the central corneal cutting depth, and the patient should be informed of the situation before surgery.
Corneal topography examination: The main purpose is to have an understanding of the regularity and symmetry of the entire corneal surface and to exclude abnormalities such as cone corneas.
Wavefront aberration examination: To check whether there are higher order aberrations that seriously affect visual quality in addition to lower order aberrations such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism, and to collect higher order aberration data as a basis for diagnosis and surgery.
After the basic examination, the doctor will be able to tell you whether you are suitable for Lasik surgery.
Surgery Details
The Lasik procedure
The eyes are cleaned, disinfected, and anesthetized with local anesthetic drops (this procedure is a pre-surgical preparation).
The patient lies flat on the surgical bed and the surgeon uses a lid opener to open the patient’s eyes.
A circular flap with a tip is made on the cornea with a micro lamellar knife and lifted, and excess water is aspirated from the cornea with a cotton swab.
Laser cutting is started. The surgeon guides the laser beam precisely through the microscope and observes the entire procedure as the patient cooperates with the surgeon’s instructions, keeping the head still while the eyes look at the red fixation light (i.e., indicator light) in the laser lens.
After the laser cut is completed, the tipped flap is reset.
After one eye is done, the previous procedure is repeated for the other eye.
When the surgery is complete in both eyes, the patient is removed from the operating table and the surgeon uses a slit-lamp microscope to check for flap repositioning.
The patient leaves the operating room to go home and rest.
Expert warning: It is crucial to follow the doctor’s prescription for eye drops and to take good post-operative care and review on time for your surgical results.
Post-operative maintenance
I. Normal post-operative eye reaction
Tears, photophobia, and foreign body sensation in the eyes may occur on the day after surgery. At this time, you should wait for the tears to flow out and then wipe them on your face, and never use tissues or towels to directly touch your eyes. At the same time, you should try to close your eyes and rest, do not turn your eyes and rub your eyes. Most friends of the eye discomfort can be relieved within 3-4 hours, very few friends after surgery may feel mild eye pain or surgery eye subconjunctival hemorrhage (white eye on the piece of bleeding), this is a normal postoperative phenomenon, does not affect the treatment effect, its severity and the length of time varies from person to person, subconjunctival hemorrhage generally 2-3 weeks can be naturally absorbed and dissipated, do not worry.
Second, the type and number of postoperative eye drops, please choose eye drops according to medical advice: 1.
1.Oxyfloxacin eye drops (Telbital) or Tobramycin eye drops (Tobex eye drops) for both eyes, 4 times a day, stop using after 7 days or as prescribed by the doctor.
2.Flume pupil (or Eflornithine): in general, 4 times a day for the first week, 3 times a day for the second week, 2 times a day for the third week, and 1 time a day for the fourth week, then stop or as prescribed by the doctor.
3. Artificial tears: hydroxyglycoside drops (New Tearran), sodium vitreous acid drops (Ally), 4 times a day for 3-6 months.
Third, postoperative review precautions.
We hope you will insist on regular review after surgery, so that we can observe the effect of surgery and give you timely guidance on eye care.
1.Review time: The first day, the seventh day, the fifteenth day, and the end of the first month after surgery must be reviewed, or you can agree with us on the review time according to the specific situation. If you have eye pain or other abnormalities, you can contact us at any time or go to the local ophthalmology clinic for examination. Please do not be negligent, so as not to delay the correct diagnosis and treatment and affect the effect of surgery.
2.Special case: If you cannot come to the review on time, please hang up the phone to consult with us or make another appointment with us for the review. If you cannot come to the review after the doctor agrees, you can check in the local ophthalmology clinic and tell our ophthalmology doctor the result by fax or email or phone so as to guide you in the post-operative medication and eye care.
IV. Precautions for post-operative care and eye use.
(There is no restriction on strenuous exercise after this surgery, but please pay attention to the following matters)
1.Please wear wind-blocking glasses or sunglasses within 2 days after surgery, and wear an eye shield to protect the operated eye from external forces that may cause the corneal flap to shift when you sleep.
2.Do not enter nightclubs and dance halls within 1 week after surgery, and do not eat irritating food (so as not to aggravate eye discomfort), no special dietary requirements after 1 week.
3.Do not splash water into the eyes when washing hair and face within 2 weeks after surgery, and do not rub the eyes.
4. Do not swim within 1 month after surgery, do not use cosmetics on the eyes and avoid foreign objects entering the eyes. To reduce eye discomfort, you can wear wind-blocking glasses or sunglasses when you go out in the first month after surgery.
5.Please avoid collision with the operated eye within three months after surgery.
6.In the early postoperative period, some of you may have some difficulty in seeing far and near, and may have symptoms such as uneven vision or double vision in both eyes, and in order to prevent fatigue, you may need to wear low-degree lenses to help see near. These are normal conditions that may occur during the recovery process, and the symptoms vary from person to person, as well as the time of appearance and duration of the symptoms, so please do not worry about them.
7.Please pay attention to eye hygiene after surgery, avoid long time close use of the eyes for fine work, avoid long time reading, watching TV, etc., so as not to cause vision fatigue and affect the effect of surgery.
V. Will my vision recede after Lasik?
This is the most worrying issue for people who are ready to have Lasik surgery. Here we have to talk about the principle of myopia. When the axis of our eye is too long, it will cause the object image to focus on the front of the retina, not on the retina, so you see things blurred, the principle of myopia glasses is to correct the focus through the concave lens. When you have the surgery, a laser is used to shave off a tiny amount of tissue in front of the cornea, changing the shape of the cornea of the eye so that the object image can be accurately focused on the retina. From then on, if the shape of your eye no longer changes, the surgery ensures that your vision does not recede. However, if you have pathological myopia, no matter how much attention you pay to it, the myopia always deepens, or if after the surgery, you still use your eyes intensely and new myopia appears, then your vision will recede. In other words, whether your vision recedes or not is not related to the surgery, but only to your eye structure and eye hygiene.