| Lasik Surgery |
|
LASIK or Lasik (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is a type of refractive laser eye surgery performed by ophthalmologists for correcting myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. The procedure is generally preferred to photorefractive keratectomy, PRK, (also called ASA, Advanced Surface Ablation) because it requires less time for the patient's recovery, and the patient feels less pain overall. However, there are instances where a PRK/ASA procedure is medically justified as being a better alternative to LASIK. Many patients choose LASIK as an alternative to wearing corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses.
The LASIK technique was made possible by the Colombia-based Spanish ophthalmologist Jose Barraquer, who, around 1950 in his clinic in Bogotá, Colombia, developed the first microkeratome, used to cut thin flaps in the cornea and alter its shape, in a procedure called keratomileusis. Stephan Schaller assisted in this landmark procedure. Barraquer also researched the question of how much of the cornea had to be left unaltered to provide stable long-term results. Later technical and procedural developments included RK (radial keratotomy), developed in Russia in the 1970s by Svyatoslav Fyodorov, and PRK (photorefractive keratectomy), developed in 1983 at Columbia University by Dr. Steven Trokel, "the father of laser vision correction," who published the first article on laser correction and was granted U.S. patents on laser surgery. (RK is a procedure in which radial corneal cuts are made, typically using a micrometer diamond knife, and is completely different from LASIK).  In 1968 at the Northrup Corporation Research and Technology Center of the University of California, Mani Lal Bhaumik and a group of scientists were working on the development of a carbon-dioxide laser. Their work evolved into what would become the Excimer laser. This type of laser would become the cornerstone for refractive eye surgery. Dr. Bhaumik announced his team's breakthrough in May 1973 at a meeting of the Denver Optical Society of America in Denver, Colorado. He would later patent his discovery. The general term for changing a patient's optical measurements by means of an operation is Refractive Surgery. The introduction of lasers in refractive surgeries stemmed from Rangaswamy Srinivasan's work. In 1980, Srinivasan, working at IBM Research Lab, discovered that an ultraviolet Excimer laser could etch living tissue in a precise manner with no thermal damage to the surrounding area. He named the phenomenon Ablative Photodecomposition (APD). Stephen Trokel published a paper in the American Journal of Ophthalmology in 1983 outlining the potential benefits of using the Excimer laser in refractive surgeries. The first patent for laser correction of the cornea using an Excimer laser was granted to Dr. Steven Trokel. (RK is a procedure in which radial corneal cuts are made, typically using a micrometer diamond knife, and is completely different from LASIK). Read the full article Wikipedia.org | Wikipedia: Verbatim Copying |
