Alternatives to Laser Eye Procedures

Laser eye surgeries are becoming more popular day by day as laser eye surgeries can put away glasses and contact lenses. Laser eye surgeries also have very little side effects, which is making laser eye surgeries more popular. But there are some people who do not want laser procedures and for some individuals laser procedures may not be suitable due to some reason. In this type of situation it is important to use alternatives to laser eye procedures.

Some of the alternatives of laser eye surgeries are lensectomy, phakic IOL, intracorneal rings, ICL (intraocular contact lens), radial keratotomy, astigmatic keratotomy, automated lamellar keratoplasty, myopic or hyperopic keratomileusis etc.

Lensectomy is removal of the natural lens of the eye and after removal of the natural lens an intraocular lens is implanted for correcting vision. The disadvantage is that high power corrections can not be done with intraocular lens implant after lensectomy. Intraocular lens implant also can not correct astigmatism properly.

ICL or intraocular contact lens implant is insertion of a contact lens without removing the natural lens of the eye. Many of the shortcomings of intraocular lens implant like correction of astigmatism, correction of high power myopia etc. can be corrected by intraocular contact lens insertion.

Intracorneal ring insertion is insertion of plastic rings that are placed in the cornea to correct vision. The rings cause flattening of central part of cornea to correct vision, mainly myopia or nearsightedness. The advantage of intracorneal ring insertion is that the rings can be removed if required and the cornea comes back to the preoperative state. But removal of intracorneal ring also causes the return of myopia or nearsightedness.

Radial keratotomy (RK) is a corrective surgical procedure on cornea to correct ametropia, which is a condition of the eye in which images fail to come to a proper focus on the retina due to difference between refractive power of the eye and size. Ametropia may be myopia, astigmatism, farsightedness etc. In radial keratotomy generally the central curvature of the cornea is reduced for correcting vision usually be removing a slice of the cornea.

Astigmatic keratotomy is a type of modified radial keratotomy used for, as the name suggests, astigmatism.

Myopic or hyperopic epikeratophakia is modification or correction of refractive error by transplanting a part of donor cornea on the front side of patient’s cornea, for correction of myopia or hyperopia.