LASIK Laser Eye Surgery Articles from
San Francisco surgeons of LaserVue Eye Center

What is Lasik eye surgery?


LASIK is a corneal reshaping procedure that combines the precision of excimer laser technology with the rapid visual recovery of making a corneal flap. Because of its improved accuracy, safety, and fast recovery time, LASIK surgery has become the procedure of choice for correcting a large variety of refractive errors throughout much of the world. The LASIK procedure itself consists of three key steps. Only "eye-drop" anesthesia is required. The entire procedure takes about 5 minutes per eye (both eyes can be done the same day).

Steps of the Lasik procedure:

Creation of corneal flap A microkeratome creates a thin flap from the clear cornea which is folded back.

Laser shapes the cornea A cold beam Excimer Laser painlessly reshapes the underlying cornea through a series of computer-driven pulses based on the patients' refractive error. The laser beam is able to vaporize microscopic amounts of the cornea enabling a precision previously unattainable.

Corneal flap moved back into position Involves folding the flap back into position.

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