The History of Lasik

By: Joe Palerma
Submitted: 2008-10-03 18:02:24
Print this article | For publisher |

Rating:

 

The history of Lasik is often thought of as being non-existent or short lived.  To many the idea of Lasik is a new one as it is often thought of as being a young technique.  But Lasik has a long history, and the technique used today is a result of improvements made on past ideas.

Surgeries dating to over 55 years ago were actually the first in vision correction.  In 1948, a doctor by the name of Jose Barraquer developed a technique for correcting vision that today would seem barbaric and unethical.  In Bogota, Columbia, his ideas involved removing over half of the cornea and freezing it.  He would then use a lathe to reshape the surface to a more suitable shape.  Once it was reshaped, the cornea was sewn back in place. 

This procedure, called freeze myopic keratomileusis or MKM, gave very unpredictable results.  It was also very difficult to perform.  As bizarre as the technique may sound, it played an important role in developing the technology we have today as part of the history of Lasik.  MKM made use of a basic version of the microkeratome that is currently used in Lasik.

By understanding the problems associated with MKM, further developments were made to help the idea of vision correction grow.  Over ten years later, automated lamellar keratoplasty or ALK was created.  This technique used a modified microkeratome that created a flap at the front of the eye and also removed a wedge of corneal tissue to correct refractive errors.  Like Dr. Barraquer’s method, however, results were unpredictable with ALK. 

Shortly after the founding of automated lamellar keratoplasty, a doctor from Russia created a technique called radial keratotomy or RK.  Dr. Fyodorov changed the previous techniques slightly in order to provide a more reliable outcome with vision correction.  With RK, the cornea is reshaped by the use of standard surgical instruments.  A scalpel was used to remove portions of the cornea for reshaping to help correct refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness) and astigmatism. 

Dr. Fyodorov’s RK technique required more physical labor to achieve a result that pales in comparison to today’s Lasik.  However, although the results were more reliable than previous techniques, the procedure was useless for refractive errors that were more severe than simple minor nearsightedness or astigmatism. 

For thirty years following Dr. Fyodorov’s technique, the use of lasers was discovered, researched, and applied to use in the eye.  In 1983, Steven Trokel first described the use of the excimer laser for the removal of corneal tissue.  He used this laser in a procedure known as photo-refractive keratectomy or PRK.  With this technique, the surface of the cornea is changed with lasers.  PRK came immediately before the invention of Lasik, which affects the inner tissue of the cornea.

The first Lasik procedure was perform in 1991 in the United States.  It is the first procedure to prove the most reliable results.  Lasik is the first to be a quick and relatively painless procedure with a fast recovery time.  The history of Lasik has been an important tool in what we have today.

Article source: Expert Articles