LASIK Facts

When people start to notice that they eyesight is “slipping” and things are not as clear, bright or sharp as they used to be, most folks take such changes pretty seriously and begin to seek out ways to help improve their vision. But many people, when faced with the idea of corrective eye surgery, are put off by the thought of something being somehow inserted into the eye, even if it means an ultimate improvement. The good news for such people is that conductive keratoplasty (CK) is an option for vision correction that is even less invasive than the better known forms of laser eye surgery.

CK is a fairly new kind of laser eye surgery in practice today. It utilizes a mild heat that is generated from radio waves. These waves are used to reduce the size of the connective tissues. These tissues are a glue-like collagen, found in the periphery of the cornea and which can cause vision distortions.

During the process of a conductive keratoplasty procedure, the shape of the cornea is changed and is “steepened.” This reshaping results in improved vision for people with a combination of presbyopia and far-sightedness, giving them better vision both in near and distance situations. For those patients who only have presbyopia, they can expect to have their near-vision improved.

CK is not considered to be an appropriate treatment if you are nearsighted, and LASIK eye surgery would be recommended as a better procedure for people who are either nearsighted or have an astigmatism. CK is also currently being studied for its effectiveness with correcting astigmatisms, and while early indications are that it might be effective, it is not yet being widely used to correct that type of vision problem.

When CK was first introduced, there were some problems reported with the stability of the vision corrections and instances where the cornea actually reverted back to it’s original condition before the corrective eye surgery was done. However, in recent years there have been many improvements in laser eye surgery techniques utilized in CK, and clinical studies in more recent years have shown that the procedure is delivering more stable results consistently.

In April of 2002, the FDA of the United States approved conductive keratoplasty for use with patients over the age of 40 who had mild conditions of farsightedness. Later, in 2004, the FDA expanded its approval to include presbyopia, which is a very common condition that typically effects people as they reach middle age. Presbyopia is a natural side-effect of the aging process and it causes the lens of the eye to stiffen, making it more difficult to focus at different distances at the same time.

As a result of these improvements, CK has been gaining a much greater level of acceptance among laser eye surgeons and potential patients are becoming more interested in this procedure. Ultimately, it will still be some years before long-term data on the success or failure of CK will be available, in order to make a comprehensive comparison between this type of corrective eye surgery and other procedures, such as Lasik vision surgery.

While typical laser eye surgery, such as Lasik, involves cutting the surface layer of the eye tissue, conductive keratoplasty does not require any cutting and there is not any kind of instrument that is inserted in the eye. Due to this completely non-invasive approach, there is virtually no incidence of infections or other serious complications. The primary issue with CK is the length of time the effect with last, which is reported to be constantly improving.