Why prk vs lasik

Flap creation is now a very safe procedure. Conversely, with PRK, because of the delayed healing 3—5 days, compared with about 3—5 hours with LASIK , there is an increased amount of time when the epithelium is not protecting the cornea and the stroma. This places the patient at an increased risk of infection.

Infections are not common after refractive procedures. The incidence has been quoted as high as 1 in patients. In my hands, the rate is less than 1 in 10, But the important point is that PRK does incur a greater risk of infection. The tradeoff is the elimination of the corneal flap. However, the risk of complications with the flap is now very low, since the femtosecond laser has become the predominant method for creating corneal flaps.

Microbial keratitis trends following refractive surgery: results of the ASCRS infectious keratitis survey and comparisons with prior ASCRS surveys of infectious keratitis following keratorefractive procedures. J Cataract Refract Surg. Retina Philadelphia, Pa. Graefes Arch. We have detected that you are using an Ad Blocker. PracticeUpdate is free to end users but we rely on advertising to fund our site. Please consider supporting PracticeUpdate by whitelisting us in your ad blocker. We have sent a message to the email address you have provided,.

If this email is not correct, please update your settings with your correct address. The email address you provided during registration, , does not appear to be valid. Please update your settings with a valid address before to continue using PracticeUpdate. Close Back.

Sign in. The main differences the study found were:. Another factor to consider: risk of complications. PRK is considered slightly less risky than LASIK because there is no risk of complications with the corneal flap since the procedure does not create a flap.

Flap complications may include the flap getting dislodged after surgery or tiny wrinkles flap striae in the cornea. This means there is always a risk that blunt trauma could dislodge the corneal flap in the future. In the rare cases in which that happens, the patient may need surgery to reposition the flap.

In contrast, an eye that has healed from PRK goes back to the way it was before surgery. For this reason, some surgeons recommend PRK for people with very active lifestyles or professions such as law enforcement.

There are certain career fields for which good eyesight is a job requirement. Therefore, people in military and law enforcement may have special considerations when deciding which type of laser vision correction to get. PRK vs. LASIK for military: Laser eye correction is popular in the military because clear vision is key, and glasses and contact lenses may hinder job performance in certain scenarios.

PRK is the most popular laser eye surgery for military members due to concerns that job-related trauma after LASIK could cause flap dislocation. Before getting laser eye surgery, military members may want to check to see if corrective eye surgery could make them ineligible for a particular role in a certain military branch. Pilots should carefully consider any possible downsides to laser eye surgery, including possible worsening of night vision.

This flap can be created using either a hand-held blade called a microkeratome or a highly precise laser. Blade-free custom LASIK is one of the safest, most dependable surgeries in modern medicine; however, the risk of flap complications, while low, still exists. PRK eliminates this risk altogether by not requiring a corneal flap. Rather, the entire epithelial layer of the cornea is removed to reveal the stromal layer.