Introduction on LASEK eye surgery

LASEK is shorted for Laser Assisted Sub Epithelial Keratectomy, which is a popular laser eye surgery to correct cornea’s refractive error. It can be used to treat nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Though a large number of people have been beneficial from this laser eye surgery, there are still a lot of people who don’t have a clear idea of it, especially the difference from LASEK, LASIK and PRK. The following will give some introduction on LASEK with the aim to give people more ideas of this laser eye surgery.

First, let us learn about the history of laser eye surgery. Corneal refractive surgery was first introduced by Lans after doing experiments in rabbits. He described corneal refractive surgery in different forms, such as keratectomy, keratotomy and thermokeratoplasty. Then in 1966, Pureskin raised the point that removing central tissue underneath a corneal flap could make refractive changes. Later Barraquer did some researches to show that the cornea disc can be removed, frozen and reshaped with complicated equipment. Though many researchers tried different ways to reshape the corneal tissue, such as Burratto, Ruiz and Krumeich, the method developed by Pallikaris in 1989 was the most similar one as the one used today. And then in 1993, Slade developed a precision surgical instrument which can reshape the corneal flap by an oscillating blade, called microkeratome. So Slade was regarded as one of the first surgeons to perform LASIK surgery. Though LASIK helps people a lot, there are still some disadvantages, for example, if people with thin corneas, wide pupils, irregular astigmatism, dry eye and glaucoma do this kind of surgery, there may some complications. Then the invention of LASEK can diminish the possibility of complications and also bring more comforts to people than PRK.

Then let us talk about LASEK eye surgery. There are five layers of translucent tissue, which can keep our eyes from light. The five layers are as following from superficial to deep：corneal epithelium, the Bowman layers, the stroma, Descemet membrane and the endothelium. If there is some defects in corneal epithelium, people can feel severe pain, but the pain can be quickly healed in healthy eyes. Please pay attention to the Bowman layer, as they can not be replaced after injury, and finally it may become standard scar tissue. The cornea’s strength and shape is mainly contributed by stroma as 90% of the cornea thickness is stroma. Just like the Bowman layer, the Descemet membrane can also not be replaced and become the scar tissue after injury. Endothelial cells are the deepest layer, which have the function of maintaining the corneal fluid balance. They have a feature of decreasing over time and rarely undergoing mitosis.

As LASEK surgery keeps a flap of the corneal epithelium, this kind of eye surgery has less risk of infection and corneal haze. Compared with other laser eye surgeries, LASEK can enable people to have less time for recovery and less postoperative discomfort.

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