Complications and risks with eye laser treatment

Typical symptoms after a laser operation

First time after a laser operation

You might feel a faint pain, your eye can tears, or you can feel that something is in the eye. Other symptoms are that the conjunctiva is itching, eyelid swollen. This disappear normally after 3-5 days after operation. During this period, you must strictly follow the doctors orders.

Second period after the laser therapy

Hyper sensitive for light can occur 2-3 weeks after the operation, it's why should avoid driving in darkness or expose yourself for strong light. The visual acuity can fluctuate up to three months after the operation depending on healing. Two months after a PRK operation, 5 of the patients can feel a temporary decrease in visual acuity because of a matt cornea. It disappears in 90% of the cases after treatment with eye-drops.

The final effect of the operation can be assessed after 3-6 month. The patient may experience binocular vision disorders (depending how big the defect is) until the other eye is treated.

Risks with eye laser

	Inflammation	This can be naturalized by antibiotic drops.
	Haze	Could be naturalized with cortisone drops.
	Refraction error reoccur or is over corrected	If the result is not achieved, an extra operation could be performed.
	Eye is drying	Feel that you have debris in your eye. Require eye drops that keep the eye moist.
	Scotopic vision gets worse	The sensitiveness for contrast will return after approximately 12 month after operation.

Statistics on eye laser treatments

Effects - The research is based on observation of over 500 000 patients
30% of patients - good result (1D)
60% of patients - very good results
10% of patients - Significally reduced vision defect (more than 1.0D)

This means that of 10 patients
6 patients do not need glasses any more
3 patients need glasses only for certain activities (driving, watching television)
1 patient needs much weaker glasses.

NOTE! In keeping with the vision physiology, patients older than 45 years need glasses to read depending to their age.