Laser eye surgery risks

Understanding Laser eye surgery risks is a vitally important step in deciding whether you are ready to go ahead with surgery or not. Millions of people worldwide undergo laser eye treatment each year and the chance of serious complications is extremely low. Sight threatening laser eye surgery risks are much less than 1% and there have been no reported cases of blindness resulting from either Lasek or Lasik .

The majority of laser eye surgery risks are not serious and are normally treatable by your optician or surgeon. Many of the complications resolve themselves over time as your eye continues its natural healing process.

When explaining the risks of laser eye surgery it is best to consider them as either ‘general’ (related to all laser eye surgery procedures) or ‘specific’ to a particular procedure. With Lasik there are additional Lasik complications which are all related to the creation of the flap.

The following laser eye surgery risks are relevant for both Lasek and Lasik surgery. The list covers all Lasek risks but there are additional lasik risks associated with the flap creation.

General laser eye surgery risks:

• Discomfort following surgery: This varies from person to person as would normally be the case in recovering from any surgery. Expect more discomfort with Lasek compared with Lasik and expect the healing time to be longer.
• Reaction to the anaesthetic: This is extremely rare.
• Dry eye: This is one of the most common risks of laser eye surgery and so it is vitally important that your surgeon assesses how dry your eyes are prior to treatment. Dry eye typically resolves itself over the first 6 months following surgery as the eye heals. If you already have dry eyes this maybe a contraindication to surgery. You can read more about dry eyes and laser eye surgery in our more detailed guide.
• Eye lid droop: (Ptosis): This is rare and usually resolves itself within 2 weeks of your surgery.
• Corneal Infection: This is an uncommon risk of laser eye surgery and can normally be treated with antibiotics and steroid eye drops if required.
• Irregular astigmatism: This can lead to you experiencing ghosting around images which is especially noticeable at night (low light levels). This can normally be treated by further laser treatment.
• Regression: This means that your vision deteriorates over time following you laser eye surgery. You may have perfect vision following surgery but one of the risks of laser eye surgery is that over time your prescription slowly returns. It rarely regresses back to your original prescription but it still maybe enough for you to need spectacles again. The higher your original prescription the more likely you are to regress. Plus prescriptions (e.g. +5.00) are also more likely to regress than minus prescriptions (short sightedness). Normally if this occurs you can have a laser enhancement (e.g. a second laser treatment) when your eyes have fully healed.
• Corneal haze: The cornea is the part of your eye which is treated in laser eye surgery and it can become cloudy if it does not heal properly after surgery.  This laser eye surgery risk can result in reduced vision but it generally improves over time. Your surgeon may prescribe you medication to help reduce the haze.
• Presbyopia: (needing reading glasses as you get older): It is important to understand that even if you have had laser eye treatment you will still need reading glasses when you get into your mid forties. There are ways/techniques that your surgeon will discuss with you that may mean you can still be left with some reading vision as you get older.
• Night vision problems: Examples of this are haloes, glare and starbursts around lights.This is a common laser eye surgery risk and occurs during night/low light levels when your pupils enlarge.It is much less likely to happen if you have had Wavefront laser eye surgery. Read more about laser eye surgery and night vision problems in our detailed guide.
• Over/under correction: Although laser eye surgery is becoming increasingly accurate, over correcting or under correcting your prescription is one of the most common risks of laser eye surgery. The following explains over/under correction:

Example of over correction:

Original prescription:  -3.00.
After surgery prescription:  +1.00

Example of under correction:
Original prescription:  -3.00.
After surgery prescription:  -1.00.

This occasionally means you may still require spectacles in certain situations e.g. for driving. It is important to note that your vision will still be almost certainly better than it was prior to surgery. This is normally easily treated with a laser enhancement once your eyes have fully healed.

If there is still anything you are uncertain of why not ask a question in our laser eye surgery forum.