LASIK enhancement is procedure intended to follow up your original operation. It may be needed if the initial LASIK procedure doesn’t achieve the results you’re expecting or a complication occurs. In the majority of cases patients report that good results are achieved after just one LASIK procedure however, in some cases an enhancement treatment may be required to help achieve better vision as not everyone can get twenty-twenty vision after just one treatment. LASIK can successfully treat high degrees of near or farsightedness and astigmatism but research has shown the best candidates for treatment are younger people who have only a mild degree of nearsightedness or astigmatism. Although many people who have undergone LASIK report that they see better than they did with glasses or contact lenses, a small percentage of people report that their vision hasn’t improved to the extent they were expecting. After your initial procedure your surgeon will ask you to monitor your vision for a few weeks. Immediately following the treatment you may experience blurred or hazed vision but this should fade quickly. If you still experience blurred vision for a few months after surgery then a LASIK enhancement may be required.

The Procedure

The LASIK enhancement is almost identical to the normal LASIK procedure, with one key difference. Instead of using a microkeratome or laser to create a flap in the cornea, your surgeon will perform the enhancement by using specialised tools. These are used to lift the flap which was made on your eye during the first LASIK procedure. This is normally painless and the entire procedure can be completed in under two minutes. Once the flap is pulled back your surgeon will then use an excimer laser to reshape your cornea. In most cases only minimal reshaping is needed and the treatment takes only a few seconds to complete.

The Risks

Although the majority of eye surgery is performed safely, as with all surgical procedures there are some risks involved in LASIK enhancements. The potential complications are the same as the initial LASIK procedure. There is a risk of corneal complications when the flap on the front of your eye is folded back during the procedure. This can include swelling, excessive tearing and infections. The outer tissue layer of the cornea is also in danger of growing in an abnormal way. If the amount of tissue removed was too small then the clarity of vision experienced might not be as good as your expectations, this is known as under correction. Those who are nearsighted are also at an increased risk of under correction. In order to fix this type of problem, another surgical procedure may be required. Similarly, if too much tissue is removed then your vision can become over-corrected although this is much more difficult to fix than under correction. If an uneven amount of tissue is removed from the eye then it may lead to astigmatism. This happens when your eye moves too much during surgery and will require further surgery to correct.