Laser Eye Surgery Results

Laser Eye Surgery Results are dependent on three principle factors

1. Skills and experience of the surgeon

2. Pre-operative level of refractive error/ eye correction

3. Equipment and technology used to perform surgery.

The best vision results after surgery are normally obtained with myopic (short-sighted ) patients who have a pre operation level of eye correction in the -2.50 to -4.00 dioptre range.

Further levels of improvement in vision and patient satisfaction are more common when laser eye surgery is used in conjunction with wavefront technology.

Of these more than 97% acheive the (UK )driving standard of vison (approx the fifth line on eye test chart )or better.It is not unknown for some patients who have had wavefront laser eye surgery performed to acheive a higher level of vision than they previously had whilst wearing spectacles or contact lenses. (better than 20/20 vision)

Patients with stronger pre surgery levels of eye correction and who are longsighted generally acheive lower success levels of visual improvement usually in region of 85-90%
A small number of cases laser eye surgery patients may even find that vision is worse than it was prior to surgery and even with a new precription for spectacles or contact lenses they may still have difficulty acheiving their best corrected vision.Further enhancement surgery may sometimes help.

It must be remembered also that ALL patients who have had laser eye surgery before the age of 40 will inevitably find a need to wear reading glasses as they age into their mid 40yrs and beyond due to the onset of presbyopia. although there is also the option of further surgery to correct this using a non laser procedure such as CK

Look also at some of the complications associated with laser eye surgery

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