My LASIK Journey

I was the first and only patient in the clinics’ 27 year history to receive linear tear in my left cornea during LASIK.

https://eyewiki.aao.org/LASIK_Flap_Buttonhole_Management

Research

Before LASIK, my prescription was -7.00 in both eyes with a low-to-moderate astigmatism. Thankfully every doctor noted that my prescription hasn’t changed in the past several years and my cornea is extremely thick making me a good candidate for LASIK, PRK, and SMILE. Every consultation gave their own opinion; however, it was pretty clear that LASIK achieved the best results. Below are just a couple studies to supplement my decision.

Now that we know LASIK is the right procedure, let’s move on to the right doctor to conduct the surgery. To select the right doctor, you look at any family recommendations, publications they have written, equiments they use, and tenure in the industry. The doctor I worked with published over 200 papers, has been in the industry for ~27 years, performs ~15 surgeries per week, and utilizes modern equipment (iFS™ Advanced Femtosecond Laser to open up the flap, and Allegretto Wave with PerfectPulse Technology to reshape the exposed cornea which correct the patient’s vision error).

Procedure

In summary, step #1 is done by a machine, in step #2, the doctor the opens up the flap which leads it to step #3 where another machine reshapes the cornea and fixes the patient’s vision. Finally, in step #4 the doctor folds the cornea back into place. My right eye was completely fine, but the procedure failed in the left eye.

Outcome

At step #2 the doctor noticed a linear shaped tear in the middle of my left cornea about the same size and depth as the laser. Uh oh, that wasn’t supposed to happen. The laser unfortunately made a cut in the middle along with the circular cut. Instead of proceeding to step #3, the doctor then folded the cornea flap back in place and added a bandage contact. The concern is now epithelial ingrowth,

Think of cornea as an air tight jar with fruits, foreign cells as fruit flies, and the foreign cells reproducing as cell growth. During the procedure, we quickly open the jar in step #2 and close the jar in step #4 so no fruit flies come in. Because it's back to normal, the fruit flies wouldn’t be able to access the fruits in the air tight jar. However, now that there is a tear, there is chance that these fruit flies (aka. cells) can sneak into the jar (aka. cornea) and eat the fruit (aka. cell growth). We are closely evaluating what path my body is going to take.

Summary

My right eye is fully 20/20 and my left eye still has my old -7 vision. For the next 3 months, I need my left eye to heal from its tear and unfortunately, I cannot do LASIK again my left eye however, I can do a PRK surgery to achieve 20/20. PRK takes a month to recover with high discomfort compared to LASIK as cited below.