Is laser vision correction surgery more risky for nearsighted or farsighted pati!
Question:
Is laser vision correction surgery more risky for nearsighted or farsighted patients?
Answers:
Laser vision correction or Laser treatment for refractive purposes are generally effected by eximer LASERs which vaporize tissue (from the cornea) to change its curvature and hence correct the refractive error.
For near-sighted people (MYOPICS) the cornea corneal curvature is flattened and for far-sighted poeple (HYPEROPICS) the corneal curvature is increased. BOTH will involve ablating or vaporizing or removing corneal tissue. This is why corneal thickness is a big issue for qualifying patients for these procedures which involve corneal tissue ablation.
LASIK was FDA approved FIRST for correction of myopia, then it was approved for HYPEROPIA, lastly, LASIK for presbyopia has also been FDA approved. Correcting Hyperopia in general requires more tissue ablation than correcting myopia. And due to the longer experience with MYOPES, I would think that LASIK in general would be "safer" for myopes.
But as for actual clinical experience, the risk for either myopes or hyperopes is just about the same.