The Advantages and Disadvantages of PRK Procedure

(prHWY.com) November 14, 2012 - Alabama, KS -- The Advantage of PRK

PRK is Better for Patients With Thin Corneas

According to All About Vision, PRK Laser Eye Surgery is evaluated safer for patients with lean corneas. Patients with slim corneas who do not quality for LASIK will often quality for PRK instead.

PRK Offers Long Term Vision Improvement

Although LASIK patients see speedy improvement in vision, PRK patients will find that vision remains to improve for days, weeks or even months after surgery. Some studies reveal that PRK results may be more stable over the long term than LASIK results.

PRK Patients Avoid Some LASIK Complications

LASIK surgery needs that a flap be cut in the cornea, under which a laser shapes the eye. PRK does not involve that a flap be cut, so PRK patients are not at risk of flap-related complications after surgery. According to the New York Times, military doctors prefer PRK because they worry about the stability of LASIK incisions during combat or supersonic flight. Likewise, some civilians worry about the flap during contact sports such as boxing or martial arts.

PRK Has a Long Safety Record

PRK was first performed in 1989, and was authorised as a surgical procedure for nearsightedness in 1995 and for farsighteness in 1998. In the decades since it was developed and came into common use, PRK has continually been much better and been shown to be as safe as LASIK.

The Disadvantages of PRK

Prolonged Recovery Time: Whereas LASIK patients are commonly comfortable and see well the day after surgery, PRK patients often go through discomfort for several days and a few weeks are often required for the vision to recover. Because of this, the postoperative follow-up care after PRK is more involved than that of LASIK. More postoperative visits are neccessary and medicated eye drops are applied for a longer period of time.

More postoperative discomfort: Suffering from vision correction procedures occurs when the surface epithelial layer is disturbed. With LASIK, this disturbance is minimal and occurs only at the flap margin. However, with PRK, an entire sheet of the epithelial layer is loosened and eliminated to show the underlying cornea for the laser treatment. Discomfort from PRK therefore stays until all areas of this epithelial sheet have healed back in. This process can take several days.

Extended Retreatment Recovery Times: For the surface epithelium must again be taken away, the entire, prolonged recovery time is again experienced with PRK retreatments.

Haze: Natural tears carry cells and other substances that promote inflammation after surgery. With PRK, the treated layer of the cornea is very close to the tear film layer, and consequently, a haze reaction can sometimes build. With LASIK, the treated layer is protected by the corneal flap, so haze is not a concern.

Another factor that influences the likelihood of haze formation is the preoperative severity of the correction undertaken, as higher levels of correction are more likely to develop haze.

Mild haze is generally not a problem and resolves with time. On rare occasions, however, haze can be quite stubborn and take months of therapy with steroid eye drops or the surgical application of a medication known as MMC to resolve.

Infection: Although extremely unusual, infection is slightly more likely after PRK than LASIK.

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