Can laser eye surgery blind you is a commonly asked questions about laser eye surgery as people want to know what the worst case scenario is should something go wrong. People also want to know what the chances are of a complication occurring and whether the rates vary between different clinics.
As with all surgical procedures,there are risks associated with laser eye surgery and these should be fully explained to you by the clinic. Having said this, the chances of things going wrong with laser eye surgery are extremely small. The complication rate of laser eye surgery is about 1 in 1000 treatments (0.1%) and in most of these instances, the surgeon will be able to successfully treat the problem without the loss of any vision. Only about 1 in 30,000 of these complications cannot be rectified by the surgeon which is an incredibly small number. This complication rate will vary slightly between different surgeons and it is worth checking with your surgeon what their audited complication rate currently stands at.
As to whether or not laser eye surgery can blind you, well theoretically the answer to this is yes, but the chances are estimated to be less than 1 in 5 million procedures. To date there have been no reported cases of laser eye surgery causing blindness and this is even taking into account the very first laser eye surgery procedures which were carried out over 20 years ago today.
Laser eye surgery risks are slightly higher for Lasik compared with Lasek, as there are separate Lasik complications. Spending more on your surgery will not necessarily ensure that the procedure is safer, although it is generally agreed that Intralase is the safest type of Lasik surgery. Laser eye surgery cost will generally be higher for this procedure and you should ask the clinic what the difference is in complication rates between standard Lasik and Intralase Lasik to justify spending the extra money.
In summary, there are risks associated with laser eye surgery but the chances of something serious going wrong during the procedure is extremely low. You may find the following related guide helpful: Is laser eye surgery safe?
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