in this video we're going to be going over the differences of lasik versus
prk these are both excellent forms of refractive surgery
but what's the difference in how the procedures are performed what's the
difference in recovery time what's the difference in cost and who
ultimately makes the best candidate for lasik vs prk let's take a look
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now today we're going to be talking about two different forms of refractive
eye surgery lasik eye surgery and then another one called prk
now prk has been around since around the 1980s and stands for
photorefractive keratectomy this procedure
is a little bit different versus lasik although both of them
achieve very similar results in terms of visual acuity
now prk is done in the operating room where your
surgeon has to first remove the very front surface of the cornea
that's called the epithelium and they can remove it either first
using a kind of mechanical brush that kind of polishes the surface
or they can use some type of alcohol solution
which makes the front surface very kind of weak and easily removed
after this your surgeon uses an excimer laser
this laser then vaporizes some of the tissue from the surface of the eye
and sculpts the cornea to refract light inside the eye
to give you good vision similar to what you'd have with glasses or contacts
now compare that basic procedure of prk versus that of lasik which stands for
laser-assisted in-situ keratomilesis now lasik
uses a different type of procedure where they
slice part of the cornea and they create a flap
that part of that flap of the cornea is then lifted off kind of like a hinge
and then that same excimer laser that was used in prk
is then applied to the cornea just as well
but then afterward they can lay that that flap
back down and the cornea kind of self heals
that allows you to see very well directly after the procedure
now one of the biggest differences between prk and lasik eye surgery
has to do with recovery time if you're somebody who goes through prk
because that front surface of the epithelium of the cornea has to be
removed it's very similar to having a corneal
abrasion or a scratch on the eye and that surface needs to re-heal before
you have better vision and you're not
experiencing any discomfort after the procedure your surgeon puts a
bandage contact lens on the eye and that's a bandage lens that remains
on the eye for about five to seven days day and night then
your eye doctor will remove that bandage lens
but during that time that bandage lens protects the cornea from your eyelid
from coming down and rubbing the eye as well as helping the healing process
for that tissue once it's removed and your eye has
re-epithelized that tissue has regrown back
then vision starts to be a lot better but during that initial
five to seven day recovery period after prk
vision is often pretty fuzzy and a lot of people
don't drive they don't go to work they just take things easy for that time
period now with prk even after that five to
seven day period as the surface re-heals even after that vision may
never be quite just as clear as it will be it still
takes some time for that cornea to heal up and patients are often still
put on medicated steroid eye drops for many
weeks after the procedure even up to several
months to keep the cornea clear and to prevent it from hazing
and to help get the prescription to stabilize right where it needs to be
now compare that recovery period to that of lasik eye surgery
because lasik doesn't have to remove that top layer surface of the cornea
they just put that flap back into position and it kind of self heals
because of that almost immediately after the procedure within the first 24 to 48
hours vision is usually very excellent and
there's very little discomfort after the procedure
there still are prescribed medications antibiotic eye drops that you don't get
an infection and steroid eye drops to help reduce any
sort of inflammation and swelling of the eye in addition
patients are encouraged to use lubricating eye drops very frequently
also sometimes even every hour or every other hour after the procedure
as dry eyes is a common complication after these procedures
now after hearing the difference in recovery time between prk and lasik you
might be kind of wondering why would anybody want to have prk lasik
seems to have faster results and is less complicated
well the reality is both of these procedures
although they have excellent results and very similar
there are some benefits to having prk versus lasik and vice versa for some
people it has to do with the thickness of their
cornea the prk procedure because they're not creating that flap
as they are with lasik there's a little bit more tissue
to give the surgeon leeway for the correction so
individuals who have a higher prescription or they have less
tissue of their cornea then that's something that prk would be recommended
for to ultimately know how much thickness
you have of your cornea that's a measurement that's done in the eye
clinic called pig chemistry and that's something that your eye
surgeon or your uh preoperative doctor will assess for
further more than that there are other considerations such as dryness of
the eye because lasik eye surgery does sever
corneal nerves and that can have a consequence of dryness afterward
for some people especially individuals who have dryness but even before these
surgeries then prk also has that advantage again
because lasik severs those nerves and predisposes to higher risk of dryness to
the eye and then there's also some lifestyle
factors to consider such as people who are in
martial arts or maybe you're in the military and you're more likely to be
involved in some form of trauma after the procedure because of
this people who have lasik although the flap
that self heals does heal uh basically 100 after three
months there's still a risk of if trauma
happens to the eye that that flap could be dislodged and removed from
the eye and that would be an emergency absolutely and so for that
reason individuals who are more likely to have
some sort of trauma after the procedure may do better with prk in the sense that
there's no flap there for that to be removed
now another frequent question that we get about lasik vs prk has to do
with cost and i think this is an amazing
question but it's pretty difficult to answer because it does
vary so much between different professionals and
location now in general here in the united states i'm in more central
minnesota the general cost for both of these
procedures are about the same and expect that it'd be somewhere
between seventeen hundred maybe two thousand dollars per eye however
feel free to shop around but i certainly encourage
you to do not sacrifice the success or your ultimate vision and health of
your eye just to try to save a few bucks and unfortunately because these
procedures are both elective and cosmetic
they are not covered by most insurances on rare occasion i'll see a few hundred
dollars get knocked off by a type of vision insurance but
it's pretty rare to see but ultimately both of these procedures have excellent
track records and very similar results if you have any interest
in these procedures make sure you discuss thoroughly with your local eye
doctor to figure out which one is best for you eye health question of
the day which one of these procedures sounds better for you and have you or a
family member already had them and what was their end result go ahead and
comment in the section below i'd love to hear from you
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again this is dr alan here from dr eye health helping you learn about the eyes
and vision keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you
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