Lasek Recovery

The motivation behind LASEK was to find a surface ablation technique like PRK that induced less discomfort, offers a lower incidence of corneal haze, and provides the patient with faster vision recovery time.

Please help me figure out what the recovery process is going to be like for Lasek. Many LASEK patients will not fully recover functional vision for 1 to 2 weeks while their eye heals, which is similar to the healing time experienced in PRK laser eye surgery. For this reason, most laser vision correction surgeons usually perform LASEK on each eye a few days to a few weeks apart, unlike LASIK that is usually performed bilaterally.

With appropriate use of drops, and pain medications, if necessary, lasek patients can have an uneventful recovery period. Recovery and comfort with LASEK compared to LASIK Visual recovery with lasek is slower.

Luckily my corneas were thick enough that my doc thought either LASIK or LASEK would work - but he leaned towards LASEK because he thought a thin cornea could lead to problems down the line.

Advantages of LASEK over Lasik include elimination of the possibility of any stromal flap complications during surgery or throughout the patient’s lifetime, including striae, DLK, and others, a decreased risk of temporary induced dry eyes, and an increase in the overall thickness of the untouched area of the cornea. Advantages of Lasik over LASEK include virtually no pain with Lasik and almost instant clear vision, often called the “WOW!”

Sometimes when LASEK is attempted, the 50-micron thin epithelium flap is not strong enough to be laid back over the treatment zone. Most doctors will tell a LASEK patient that LASEK will be attempted but it cannot be guaranteed that the LASEK will be completed - the epithelium of each individual behaves differently. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that LASEK retreatment after LASIK is a safe and effective alternative when LASIK retreatment is deemed unsafe because there is not sufficient residual corneal stromal bed or when retreatment is required many years after LASIK and relifting the original flap is expected to be problematic. Laser Assisted Sub-Epithelial Keratomileusis is a refractive surgery technique developed by Italian doctor, Massimo Camellin, MD and first publicized in 199

If the patient was a high myope and LASEK was being used as a technique to reduce the probability of corneal haze, then there may be a problem.

The use of the excimer laser for LASEK is not FDA-approved, but is an accepted”off label use”use of the excimer laser.

Lasik normally provides virtually no pain, has an almost instant vision recovery, and almost never causes corneal haze; the cornea almost doesn”t know it has had surgery.

After going through countless posts here, the 1 month mark seems to be where panic really starts to set in for PRK patients, myself included.

LASEK laser eye surgery causes dry eye less frequently than LASIK laser eye surgery.

In LASEK laser eye surgery, the epithelium, or outer layer of the cornea, is cut not with the microkeratome cutting tool used in LASIK, but with a finer blade called a trephine a 20% alcohol solution. Patients need to wear a “bandage contact lens” for about 3 or 4 days after LASEK laser eye surgery to serve as a protective layer between your blinking eyelids and the treated eye surface, which is not necessary after LASIK.

Laser epithelial keratomileusis, or LASEK, combines benefits of the two most commonly performed procedures - LASIK and PRK.

LASEK is a suitable alternative when corneal shape or thickness makes the risk of LASIK unacceptable. To determine the risks and benefits of LASEK VS LASIK in your specific situation, please schedule an appointment with a Laser Eye Surgeon near you.

Tell Me More.

Compared to LASIK, there is also less risk since there is no flap created, but there is a slightly longer healing and visual recovery period.

To use an analogy, I can make the walls of a house thinner, but if too thin, they may not hold up the roof.

LASEK stands for laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy.

In the lasek procedure, the epithelial or surface layer is loosened with a softening agent made of dilute, medical-grade alcohol.

A LASEK procedure involves preserving the extremely thin epithelial layer by lifting it from the eye’s surface before laser energy is applied for reshaping.

A 2008 study published in the Journal of Refractive Surgery indicated that people undergoing PRK tended to have less pain and healed slightly faster than people who had undergone a surgical technique called butterfly LASEK. LASEK is used mostly for people with corneas that are too thin or too steep for LASIK, when it may be difficult to create a thicker LASIK flap.

During LASEK, your surgeon uses local anesthesia.