|
Refractive surgery has been commercially available for over twenty years.
Three main categories of surgery have emerged thus far:
(1) Radial keratotomy, an incisional surgery popular in the 1980s and now obsolete due to its shortcomings and long-term risks;
(2) Corneal laser surgery (also called laser vision correction), beginning with PRK in the 1990s and now including LASIK, LASEK, Epi-LASIK and so on, all of which use an excimer laser to re-shape the cornea; and
(3) Lens implant surgeries, including phakic intraocular lenses (where an artificial lens is placed in front of or behind the human lens) and clear lens exchange (where the human lens is extracted and an artificial lens is inserted). These surgeries have been performed in Europe for several years and are starting to become available in the US.
There are also other types of procedures including conductive keratoplasty, which uses radio waves to reshape the cornea, causing a small amount of refractive change. |
