Well over 10 million people have had LASIK surgery as reported by Market Scope in midyear 2018. An elective surgery, its rate of success remains over 96 percent.
More importantly, ophthalmologists continue to improve on techniques and equipment, so more patients with complicated eye issues can become candidates for laser eye surgery.
Patients often report high levels of satisfaction with the procedure. For the 3 or 4 percent, some common issues do appear. One of the most common postoperative issues lists as dry eye.
Dry eye
After LASIK surgery, many patients experience a dry eye for several weeks as the eyes adjust to their new state of vision. Patients describe a condition where the eye becomes inflamed, sometimes appears red, and feels dry.
A person may feel uncomfortable and become sensitive to light. For whatever reason, the eye stops providing enough moisture through tears to lubricate all the eye tissues.
Components of tears
Tears have an oil layer, a water layer, and a mucus layer. The three together create comfort and high function in the eye.
The oil layer delays evaporation of the waterier portion of the tears. The water portion of a tear does the actual cleaning of the eye as in floating off particles that do not belong on the eye surface.
The mucous layer lets the water part of the tear stick to the eye for a short period of time.
Any of those components lessen a sting or burn happens. Most doctors prescribe eye drops for the condition which some patients find inconvenient. For a few patients, dry eyes can have serious consequences.
Plasma rich treats dry eye
Plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) has become a treatment for dry eyes. A longitudinal study by Ophthalmic Research found 42 patients with 77 eyes with dry eye disease after having a LASIK surgery.
They evaluated each patient’s condition in terms of the dry eye condition. The researchers did 1 to 4 treatment cycles with PRGF eye drops with a cycle being six weeks.
A healthy person has a baseline in the normal ocular surface of (0 – 12 units), while someone with a moderate ocular disease will have (23–32). The new PRGF drops gave the Ocular Surface Disease Index a 38.12 percent boost.
In other words, it has decreased units making the flow more typical in the eye. With no adverse events with a PRGF treatment, it alleviated dry eye symptoms effectively.
Why does it matter
The inconvenience of eye drops is just that, inconvenient. Having low vision remains an extremely life-changing event.
It means unable to read well, most likely cannot drive, and losing independence. Laser eye surgery increases sight so people can function more normally.
Using eye drops ensures the operation stays successful since an eye dry too long affects vision and the incision line of the original surgery. It improves the quality of life.
As doctors do more research, more products will become customized for specific levels of dry eye, making it a little less inopportune. Until then, stop by the Houston Lasik office and have a chat.
They may have an idea of improving the quality of your life. They will be more than happy to share that information.
Houston Lasik leads in providing premium LASIK technologies to Houston, Sugar Land, and the surrounding region. The center’s award-winning medical director introduced revolutionary technologies such as iLASIK to the region.
This technology is used by NASA astronauts, Navy SEALS and Air Force fighter pilots. At Houston Lasik, you can now receive the same treatment. For more information, please call (281) 240-0478
Via
https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/news/20180727/lasik-know-the-rewards-and-the-risks
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-is-dry-eye
https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2717220
