Laser eye surgery LASIK, PRK, LASEK

PRK, LASIK, LASEK... Introduction to the laser eye surgery

I'd spent relatively long time before I decided to making of this website about the Laser eye surgery. Laser eye surgery using excimer lasers is well known technique used in all over the world. This type of surgery is beeing provided worldwide since the eighties and it is recognized as a normal technique eqivalent to other techniques of eye surgery. Surgeries such PRK, LASIK and the newest LASEK are able to eliminate big amount of diopters and for patients with diopters around +-5 dpt. provides 99% chance to live better life without the glasses. Though, it is possible to treate eyes with more than twenty diopters! (mainly using the LASIK technique). Generally, the near-sightedness is easier to treate than the farsightedness.

Why I have amde this website? ... Because:
1. There are not so much websites about the real experience with the laser eye surgery in Europe and in Prague especially, although there are done thousands of surgeries a year.
2. Excimer laser surgery LASIK, LASEK and PRK are beeing done on a very high level using the newest technologies (and I have real experience with PRK here.
3. I have a personal experience With laser eye surgery (see next paragraph).
4. That's more, I would like to publish your personal experience with LASIK, LASEK or PRK surgery.
5. Lastly, I want to set off some another resources about the laser eye surgery, links and list of excimer laser surgeons in the Czech Republic, Europe.

My personal experience with PRK surgery

Laser eye surgery get rid me of the glasses. Currently, I live in Prague, the Czech Republic, though I can't say I'd wanted just for a clinic in the city. My diopters before the excimer surgery were approx. -5 on both eyes. So that means there were concern about near-sightedness. I had been reading and looking up the Internet before the surgery and I decided for it after getting enough information. I don't even know why, but since I had started, the PRK seemed to me as the most attractive method of laser eye surgery. Eventually, I was considering getting its "child", LASEK, but I never thought about LASIK. In the process, I had finally decided to undergoing the treatment in one of the best hospital in the country, the UVN (Central Military Hospital - Prague 6) and its Laser Eye Center, with the main surgeon Jaroslav Madunicky, MD, with over five thousand of surgeries. The whole center is really personal and the staff was excellent. It is in virtue of its "size" - there are operated just few people a day. The excimer laser they are using is well known and respected VISX STAR S4. Its laser beam is able to work in a special mode, using a special software for customized ablation, called the WaveFront.

In the time of writting fo this article, it's been one year since the surgery. I have undergone PRK surgery on both eyes at the same time and I see clearly and with no glasses needed. Immediately after the surgery there were put a small contact lens into each eye, mainly by reason of faster healing and less pain. It was taken out the third day after the surgery. It wasn't really comfortable during these days, but when you obbey instructions given by doctor, that is quite an easy to get over it. You gotta wait just three days in a dark room (I very reccomend you sun-glasses ready immediately after the surgery) and the lenses are really helpfull things, I think. You can't imagine - that was brilliant after these three days!! Equipped by sun-glasses, I was speeding home by the taxi in total delirium...

Then, there were some additional check-ups, when I could see how my eyes were stabilizating themselves. After a surgery of minus diopters is an eye alway little bit over-corrected due to reversible character of the cornea. It is expressed by worse seeing on a short distance, but it is getting better every day following the surgery. On every check-up are are controlled main parts of the eye as well as the diopters and intraocular pressure is measured.

Lasik vs. PRK

Laser eye surgery is a fantastic solution for active people, who can't stand the glasses either in their every day life, or in their job or sport. The question is, what is beter - LASIK versus PRK ?? Many surgeons says (and many researches confirms) that if you have low or middle levels of vision problems, the results are the very same. But it's not just a matter of diopters cause the eye has many of attributes which has to be considered. Never, never try to make your own decision without long and perhaps exhausting discussion with your surgeon, who is the main person in the process and who should have the last word in the decision.

LASIK/LASEK/PRK - Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

Who can undergo the surgery LASIK, PRK or LASEK ?

Geberally, person over 18 years of age (TOTALLY uniquely someone who is below 18), who undergo pre-operation check-up with no potential problems and with very low level of risk. Basically, laser eye surgery is very safe kind of surgery, but not everyoone can be recognized as a person suitable for the operation.

Is better LASIK, LASEK or PRK ?

None of them is the worst as well none of them is the best. PRK is an older type of surgery, it is more verified method and more used in Europe. It has some cons - mainly longer healing, and is very usefull for low and middle visual problems. Lasik is working from lower problems to a very high ones and the healing process is quite fast. In fact, every method is very well and has much more pros than cons, although for some people can be LASIK unusefull whereas PRK can be bad choice for a different type of patients.

How much the LASIK / LASEK / PRK surgery costs?

The prices are for the Czech Republic. PRK approx 14000-16000 CZK / 1 eye, LASIK approx 17000-22000 CZK / 1 eye. LASEK is a variant of PRK and it costs approx 1000 CZK more than PRK. For your information, 1 EUR = approx 28 CZK, 1 USD = approx 22 CZK.

I would like to become a pilot, but I've got a glasses... is eye laser surgery thing, which could help me?

Surely YES. The question is.... pilot of which kind of plane? For flying with sport planes, ultralights and gliders you can have apporox 5 diopters and there should not be any problem after the surgery. You just need to wait one year and go to check-up at your civil aviation medical authority. The same is valid for Commercial Pilot Licence, normally you can have less diopters when you use the glasses, and undergoing the treatment is not problem as well. The place, where you can excercise some problem, can be army - that seems almost impossible to fly air-fighter or any other kind of military plane (just ask your military officers, they knows it more, and the rules are different in every country).