Cataract Surgery Chicago - Lake County Gurnee

Surface Ablation - PRK & Lasek

Surface Ablation is similar to LASIK eye surgery, in that the same type of laser is used, however a permanent corneal flap is not created. Instead, the epithelium of the eye is loosened and carefully peeled off the surface of the cornea. The laser beam is then applied directly to the surface of the eye to reshape the cornea. If we save the epithelium and replace it over the surface, the procedure is called LASEK. If we discard the epithelium, the procedure is called PRK.

PRK and LASEK are less frequently used because of the development of LASIK and now Intralase, but in some individual cases, surface ablation may still be the procedure of choice. Even though the initial healing may take several days longer than that of LASIK, the long term effects are the same. In LASEK, the old epithelium eventually degenerates, but the thought is that it helps to protect the cornea while it is healing. Numerous studies are quite equivocal as to whether saving the epithelium actually is of any benefit.

We tend to do LASEK for higher corrections and PRK for lower corrections, but it doesn't seem to matter very much which one we choose. When we used the first generation broad beamed lasers, treating higher corrections with surface ablation often caused superficial haze in the cornea. The modern lasers that we now use cause less haze, but we will use low dose Mitomycin–C in cases where we will ablate more than 75 microns of tissue.