All surgery has a certain risk factor
Although the majority of patients experience a vast improvement in their vision, neither your laser eye surgeon or your your optometrist can guarantee that the procedure will be 100% effective or free from complications.
Laser eye surgery safety
The key to managing risk lies in the rigorous application of safety protocols.
The possibility of complications
There is a very small possibility that the procedure or a complication arising from the procedure could cause your vision to be blurred, doubled, distorted, or to have halos or other disturbances, and that these would NOT be correctable with glasses or contact lenses.
The likelihood of a complication relates to the thoroughness of preoperative testing, the expertise and skill of the surgeon, the equipment he is using and the degree of follow-up care.
In the remote chance, that a surgeon cannot correct the outcome by medications or an enhancement, the only way of restoring the vision may be a corneal transplant.
The past
It is necessary to mention that there are no published very long-term outcomes of laser eye surgery. However, corneal flaps have been created in the cornea for approximately over 50 years (in procedures such as keratomileusis as described and performed by Barraquer since the 1950’s), the excimer laser has been used for almost 20 years in the cornea and there have been approximately 17 million procedures performed to date worldwide.
Professor Reinstein was one of the key contributors to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidance Document on LASIK (2006), which determined that the “current evidence suggests that photorefractive (laser) surgery for the correction of refractive errors is safe and efficacious for use in appropriately selected patients.” Furthermore, the Guidance Document did not mention any serious concerns about the long-term safety of the procedure if performed with the latest technology and techniques.
Laser eye surgery risks
Like any surgical procedure, laser eye surgery (LASIK and PRK / LASEK) involve risks of unsuccessful results, complications, or serious injury, from unknown and unforeseen causes.
Laser eye surgery risks described
Although it is not possible to list every potential risk or complication that may result from the procedure, we list the most relevant risks on the following page.