How to Evaluate the Efficacy of Surgery Based Vision Improvement

At the first instance, as a prospective patient, it is important that you gain knowledge as how to ascertain the efficacy of vision improvement after surgical procedures.

If possible get to know your chances of getting at least 20/40 vision acuity range. This particular range is the most preferred one, of course only next to 20/20 range, to get an unrestricted driving license.

You can also seek advice and get to know the possibility of achieving a perfect 20/20 vision after surgery. Further, make it a point to ask.

Whether you will be in need of any additional enhancement procedure performed within a year or so after the initial surgery. It is only possible for you to get relative answers for this question as the situation may differ from doctor to doctor and your refractive error level.

You can find the following points helpful to make a self-assessment based on your vision problem and you can use this as a rough guide for proceeding further.

Mild Myopia

The mild myopic patient or the person with nearsightedness stands a better chance to achieve hundred percent 20/40 vision or even better and the person can drive without any external aid of glasses or contact lenses.

On an average, the success percentage of achieving a 20/20 vision is around 98 percent, but many a times the patients may have to undergo a second or an enhancement procedure after the initial surgery.

Only one percent of the patients who have got corrected their vision through surgery will not be in need of any enhancement procedure, but this is possible only in cases of mild myopic patients who have got a refractive error of up to -3.00 diopters, with or without astigmatism.

Moderate Myopia

Moderate myopic patients will be able to achieve a 20/40 vision or better and the success percentage is almost cent percent. The success percentage of achieving a 20/20 vision is around 88 percent, however such patients might have to undergo a second or enhancement procedure after the first or initial procedure.

The cent percent achievement of 20/40 and a lesser percentage of achieving 20/20 could be possible only after an enhancement procedure and again this is possible only with patients who have moderate myopia where in the refractive error is within the range of -3.00 to -6.00 diopters.

Severe Myopia

Patients who suffer from a severe myopia with a refractive error range of –6.00 to –9.00 diopters stand a 99 percent chance of getting their vision corrected up to a level of 20/40 range.

Only a moderate percentage of people, say 5 to 8 percent, will be in need of a second procedure and in case of second procedure done on patients, the success percentage of getting a perfect 20/20 vision will be around 90 percent.

Extreme Myopia

Persons who have a refractive error range of above –9.00 diopters are considered to be extremely myopic. These patients when they undergo surgical procedure can achieve a 20/40 vision acuity level and the success percentage for achieving this level is around 90 percent after the initial procedure.

These patients will be in need of a higher level of correction and hence almost 12 to 15 percent of the patients might be in need of a second or enhancement procedure and the chance of getting a 20/20 vision acuity will be around 75 percent.

Patients with extreme myopia always have better results after surgical procedure. However, there are certain limiting factors such as steepness and thickness of the cornea involved that alters the success percentage.

Patients who have thicker and steep cornea need to discuss the matter with the surgeon and ascertain the feasibility and the success angle before attempting to get the LASIK procedure done on them. ]

Though there are possibilities for carrying out enhancement procedures for correcting any of the residual errors, there are certain limitations that control performing LASIK procedures on such patients.

Astigmatism

Astigmatic patients can also reap similar results as that of myopic patients when it comes to surgical correction. However, due to the presence of a higher or moderate level of astigmatism before the actual surgical procedure.

The situation can reduce the chances of getting a perfect 20/20 vision acuity after the initial procedure. But, due to advancement in technology, there is a possibility for astigmatic patients to achieve a perfect 20/20 vision after second or enhancement procedures. If a patient is having a refractive error of 1.00 diopter or less then it is regarded as mild astigmatism.

Hyperopia

When it comes to using LASIK procedure for treating patients with hyperopia, FDA has come out with a standard prescription after conducting a multi-center trial. In the prescription made, FDA has approved using an excimer laser called VISX Star S2.

In the multi-center trial conducted, the surgeons treated patients having hyperopia in the range of +1.00 to +6.00 diopters and the outcome was that nearly 90 percent of the patients were able to achieve a 20/40 vision acuity level and a whopping 53 percent of patients achieved a 20/20 vision without any external aids such as glasses or contact lenses.

Hyperopic patients should know that the healing process will take more time when compared with that of myopic patients and the need for subsequent enhancement surgery will also be more for hyperopic patients.

However, such statistics can never be same and it may vary depending upon the patients’ conditions and the experience of the doctors performing the surgery

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