Part 5: LASIK vs PRK/LASEK? Which laser eye procedure is best?

| Oct 28, 2008 | Comments 0

You will have a choice of procedures when you come to have laser eye surgery. But which one will be right for you?

Basically though, there are only two laser eye treatment procedures available, but each one has options within.

Option 1: LASIK (the most common and most popular)

Option 2: Surface Laser (with various forms… PRK, LASEK, epiLASIK)

LASIK laser eye surgeryLet’s begin with option 1, LASIK, which is by far the most common laser eye procedure, accounting for more than 90% of all laser vision corrections. Why is it so popular? Well, it is pretty much painless both during and after surgery and great vision is there by the next day. Patients can also work again the next day so very little downtime. This is the procedure that spreads quickly by word-of-mouth due to it’s powerful ‘wow!’ effect. The flip side here is that some patients are cautious about having a corneal flap created with a mechanical blade device and questions around long-term stability of the cornea.

These issues have driven the rapid move over to blade-free (dual laser) LASIK. Here the blade is eliminated in favour of a laser to create the corneal flap and the flaps made are much thinner and more accurate. More on this very soon in the next article.

Next, option 2, Surface Laser, comes in the guises of PRK, LASEK, epiLASIK, epi-flap, etc. At the risk of upsetting some colleagues and equipment suppliers, these are all basically the same procedure! Whichever variation you get, your final vision result will be the same. Some doctors and clinics use different names but there isn’t really a big difference at all. Vision, recovery time, post-operative pain – all the same across the board.

This is the laser eye surgery procedure that is very well remembered by patients… because it is painful for 2-3 days afterwards! And it takes several days for vision to recover. So there is not much word-of-mouth spread, and no ‘wow’ effect. When friends ring up the next day to see how you are doing, you will tell them you can’t see well yet and it really hurts!

So why do some doctors or clinics advocate PRK as the best choice? There is no flap cut hence eliminating blade-related potential complications and the cornea remains stronger compared to the same prescription after a LASIK eye procedure.

OK, enough for now. More on this topic very soon and on how the introduction of thin-flap blade free LASIK changed the game.

Filed Under: LASIK • PRK • Safety

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About the Author: Mr. Dave Allamby FRCS FRCOphth is a leading London-based laser eye surgeon. You may have seen him on the This Morning TV show with Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton or read one of several articles in the national press, recently for treating Denise Van Outen, rock giant Rick Wakeman and broadcaster Paul Ross. David is Medical Director at Focus Laser Vision, known as a world-leading clinic in the treatment of presbyopia, or age related loss of close vision. Focus Laser Vision is also London's only clinic to offer next-generation Z-LASIK laser eye treatment for short sight, long sight or astigmatism.

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