LASIK Refractive Correction Surgery- How It Works May 2014

LASIK Refractive Correction Surgery- How It Works
LASIK Refractive Correction Surgery is a process which permanently changes the shape of the Cornea,
the clear covering in the front of the eye. The process is affected to improve the vision of a person and
also to do away with the necessity of eyeglasses or contact lens.

Before understanding how the LASIC process is done it will be imperative to know a bit about how our
eyes work. Our eyes are designed just like a camera and the retina and the lens are two parts of the eyes
which refract and bend the light in a way so that they are focused perfectly on the retina from where
the images are sent to the brain for analysis and we get the perception of sight. However if there is
some anomaly in the shape and the structure of the retina or the lens, we have problems in clear vision,
which is corrected with eyeglasses or contact lens. There are three types of common vision anomalies
known as short sight, long sight and astigmatism.

Short sightedness or Myopia is an anomaly where the image is focused in front of the retina and
therefore the vision is blurred. This anomaly is corrected by the help of divergent lenses which focus the
image on the retina and the vision anomaly is corrected.

Long sightedness or Hyperopia is an anomaly where the image is focused behind the retina and
therefore the vision is blurred. This anomaly is corrected by the help of convergent lenses which focus
the image on the retina and the vision anomaly is corrected.

Astigmatism is a visual defect in which vision is blurred due to the failure of the optics of the eye to
focus a point object into a sharp focused image on the retina. Astigmatism is caused due to an irregular
or toric curvature of the cornea or lens

LASIK surgery is a process which shapes the curvature of the cornea in such a way so that there is no
need for use of eyeglasses or contact lenses and the visual acuity is considerably improved. LASIK uses a
excimer laser which literally carves out the cornea so that all the three forms of visual anomaly, Myopia,
Hyperopia and Astigmatism are corrected. LASIK involves the creation of a flap of the upper corneal
tissue which is then peeled back and the lower corneal tissues are sculptured according to the visual
anomaly. Once the reshaping of the cornea is done, the flap is replaced. There is no need for any
stitches and the flap will be naturally held in place by the cornea.