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By Mayo Clinic staff
LASIK eye surgery may be an option for you if you have one of these vision problems:
- Nearsightedness (myopia). When your eyeball is slightly longer than normal or when the cornea curves too sharply, light rays focus in front of the retina and blur distant vision. You can see objects that are close more clearly, but not those that are far away.
- Farsightedness (hyperopia). When you have a shorter than average eyeball or a cornea that is too flat, light focuses behind the retina instead of on it. This makes near vision and sometimes distant vision blurry.
- Astigmatism. When the cornea curves or flattens unevenly, the result is astigmatism, which disrupts focus of near and distant vision.
- Presbyopia. Age-related eye changes result in the gradual loss of your eyes' ability to actively change focus on nearby objects.
Your eye doctor will likely recommend that you try other ways of correcting your vision — such as by using glasses or contact lenses — before you turn to LASIK eye surgery or another similar refractive procedure.
References
- Bower KS. Laser refractive surgery. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 5, 2011.
- Sakimoto T, et al. Laser eye surgery for refractive errors. The Lancet. 2006;367:1432.
- Mimura T, et al. Refractive surgery. In: Yanoff M, et al. Ophthalmology. 3rd ed. Edinburgh, U.K.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/212799885-2/0/1869/0.html. Accessed Jan. 6, 2011.
- Wavefront-guided LASIK. American Academy of Ophthalmology. http://one.aao.org/CE/EducationalProducts/FPSnippet.aspx?tid=0202397v&mid=fp029030a-1&sid=fp20080006&filename=fpv26-02903-01_modulediv.xml. Accessed Jan 6, 2011.
- LASIK. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/LASIK/expect.htm. Accessed Jan. 6, 2011.
- Robertson DM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic. Rochester, Minn. Jan. 16, 2011.
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