LASIK Now Safer Even After Previous Eye Surgery

Rapidly improving technology is making LASIK safer, as well as widening the scope of its potential benefits, according to A. John Kanellopoulous, MD.

Rapidly improving technology is making LASIK safer, as well as widening the scope of its potential benefits, according to A. John Kanellopoulous, MD.

“We are seeing that we are able to help many more people who have had a poor outcome from a previous common LASIK procedure to correct myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism,” he said. “In fact, the rate of success for vision improvement in those patients is better than 90 percent.”

Additionally, Dr. Kanellopoulous said LASIK is being used as a treatment for those who have had serious ocular procedures.

“We have gotten to the point that those who have had serious ocular surgery, such as incisional keratotomy, cataract removal or penetrating keratoplasty [PKP], are now able to consider LASIK as an option for visual rehabilitation,” he said.

“This holds a lot of promise for those whose last resort was corneal transplantation.”

According to Kanellopoulous, the two main areas of improvement have been in the delivery of the procedure and in diagnosing a patient’s vision problems.

“Laser systems have become much more sophisticated in treating details,” he said. “Diagnostic abilities have also significantly improved; we have a much better understanding why a person is having vision issues.”