Stop hesitating and lay those glasses and contact lenses to rest once and for all. Your eyes will be grateful.
The PRK method is the oldest refractive laser techniques of all but, in some cases, it is still the best option available. In essence, this is correcting the curvature of the cornea, once the epithelium has been mechanically removed. Once the surface of the cornea has been desensitised using anaesthetic eye drops, and the epithelium has been removed (using a surgical instrument or a little brush) the laser procedure is carried out within the surface layers of the stroma.
Because the epithelium forms a sort of natural shield, without which the eye becomes extremely vulnerable or even painful, the cornea must be covered using a contact lens after the procedure. The covering layer of the epithelium is regenerated relatively fast, over the course of the following few days, but even so the healing process is often accompanied by pain and un-sharp vision. The unpleasant feelings associated with the surgery usually cease within the next 3 to 4 days. The definite healing over of the cornea and complete vision stabilisation is largely individual but usually this happens within the next few weeks or months. Optimal vision may be expected within one month or a little longer. This is why (unlike procedures of the LASIK type) we always carry out the surgery of one eye first and the surgery of the other eye is recommended to be completed within the next one to six months after the first one.
Remodelling of the cornea using excimer laser
Final covering of the eye using a contact lens
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Who is this method meant for?
Given the current competition from the newer and much more sophisticated lasers such as the iDESIGN iLASIK and FemtoLASIK, this method is usually recommended to those patients with a slight dioptre error. The advantage is the possibility to carry out an individualised tailor-made procedure based on the iDESIGN technology. We therefore recommend this procedure to patients with one of the following:
- short-sightedness and astigmatism (low dioptre error of up to −2,0 dioptres)
- patients with cornea that is too thin
- as a re-operation having undergone another procedure previously (with the possibility of an individualised procedure)