Laser Eye Surgery Articles                

One of the benefits of laser surgery is that is can be used to treat a range of patients with different strength prescriptions and different eye conditions.

Despite being one of the more common age related eye conditions, laser glaucoma surgery for vision correction is still possible for people aged over sixty, subject to assessment by your physician.

Glaucoma occurs where the aqueous humor that fills the eyeball is unable to drain correctly, leading to a build up of fluid and an increase in pressure (IOP: intra ocular pressure).

The increased intra ocular pressure is believed to be linked to damage to the optic nerve, which affects vision unless treated using glaucoma surgery.

Such glaucoma surgery is now often performed using lasers, which will essentially create holes in the eye, from which the fluid can drain, decreasing the pressure.

There are three types of laser surgery for glaucoma: Laser Trabeculoplasty, Laser Iridotomy and Cyclophotocoagulation. These target different parts of the eye and aim to drain the fluid in slightly different ways. Which one is used will depend upon the category of glaucoma that you suffer from and the severity of the condition.

If your glaucoma is assessed as 'stable', then it is still possible to undergo laser vision correction, to restore your eyesight, although this is a different procedure to ordinary glaucoma surgery.

There are a number of different methods used for laser vision correction and some of these might not be suitable for those suffering from glaucoma. For example, LASIK treatments usually use a suction ring to attach to the eye when a 'flap' is cut into the eye, which temporarily increases the pressure in the eye.

However, other methods such as PRK may be suitable, while there is the option of laser guided surgery, which can also avoid this problem.

Ordinary laser eye surgery is not used for conditions such as cataracts, which is where the eye's natural lens becomes unclear due to a build up of protein. Part of the procedure for correcting cataracts (in which the natural lens of the eye is replaced with an artificial one) involves using laser surgery for removing a film that can develop across the eye after the initial cataract surgery. However, this is a different procedure to that used for ordinary laser vision correction. The difference is that laser vision correction is designed to improve the overall eyesight of the patient, permanently reducing the strength of their prescription (often to 'perfect' vision).

Cataract surgery, on the other hand, is designed to restore the patient's vision just to what it was before the cataract developed (i.e. if you wore glasses before, you will still need them after).

Laser surgery has proven very successful in protecting the vision of patients with age-related macular degeneration, which is a condition where part of the retina deteriorates, leaving patients with a lower level of detailed eyesight. This condition can be treated in certain forms by medication, however, in others it is difficult to prevent once it has been detected in one eye. Laser procedures have now been applied to this condition to slow down its progression, allowing a longer period of good eyesight for older people.