LASIK, Another Safety Success Story!

A topic often discussed is safety in eye surgery so I thought we should mention how safe LASIK is! As with all surgeries, post-operative infection is one of the most feared complications possible. Another new study was just published that looked at this exact issue.

From September of 2002 to May of 2008 a study was performed looking at the frequency of infections in patients who have undergone LASIK. A total of 204,586 eyes had LASIK over this time period; only 72 eyes became infected! Yup, you read that right: 72 of 204,586. That's an infection rate of 0.035%! And even with infections more than half of the eyes ended up with vision that was 20/20 or better.

The most important take home messages from this study and all of the studies like it are really two: LASIK is VERY safe, but there is no such thing as a totally risk-free, complication-free surgery of any kind. We are very fortunate at Skyvision Centers in that we have yet to have any serious complications in our LASIK patients, but we tell everyone before surgery that it is possible that something could happen. Thankfully, in LASIK at Skyvision, especially with Dr. White, it's very, VERY rare. Just like in the study!