Specialized Experts
Dr. Jalal Almosawi
CONSULTANT OPHTHALMIC SURGEON
Dr. Hajer Al Sawad
CONSULTANT OPHTHALMIC SURGEON
REFRACTIVE SURGERIES
These are surgical procedures that correct refractive errors including nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, eliminating the need of contact lenses or glasses.
These surgeries are safe, effective and approved by the FDA. The computerized nature of these surgeries, the high level of expertise of the operating doctors and presence of safeguards increase the safety of the surgery.
The surgery usually takes around 10 minutes per eye.
Types of Surgery
PRK/LASEK
PRK is the oldest available laser eye surgery starting in the late 1980s. PRK is considered a surface level laser, as it does not require a corneal flap. The procedure consists of the surface level of the cornea being reshaped by the laser. This will cause new epithelial cells to grow back which will repair vision in the eye. PRK is currently the most invasive procedure, and the recovery tends to take around 3-7 days, and vision is completely recovered in 2-6 weeks. PRK and LASEK follow very similar steps until the laser. In LASEK the cornea’s surface layer is replaced rather than left to regrow, however this procedure is not used anymore.
LASIK/FemtoLASIK
Contrary to PRK, LASIK is not a surface procedure. During LASIK, a flap is created on the surface of the eye by the surgeon using micro-keratome. Then the surface under the flap is lasered and reshaped to improve vision, and the flap is unfolded back to its original place. The more technologically advanced version of LASIK is FemtoLASIK, which is the same procedure however, rather than the surgeon creating the flap by micro-keratome, the surgeon will use a femto laser to create the flap. The recovery for LASIK is typically 24 hours.
SMILE PRO
The SMILE Pro is considered the least invasive of all these procedures as it is not a surface procedure and is considered a ‘flapless’ procedure. Using the Femtosecond laser, a small incision is made in the cornea. Through this keyhole, the laser reshapes the cornea and by cutting an ultra-thin tissue that the surgeon removes through the keyhole opening. This entire process typically takes about four minutes, and the recovery can be as fast as two hours, and the least amounts of side effects.
PRESBYOND
PRESBYOND blended vision is a technique used to go beyond conventional monovision, by fine-tuning the depth of focus in each eye, a personalized ablation profile is created for each individual patient. This ensures optimized refraction, with virtually no loss of contrast sensitivity and continuous binocular vision in all ranges. It is a physiologically optimized solution for patients with Presbyopia.
Who is candidate for refractive surgeries?
- 18 Years old or older.
- Using the same eyeglass prescription for the previous two years.
- Free of conditions like cataract or glaucoma.
- If female, non-pregnant.
- If a female has recently given birth, the surgery should be performed more than three months after delivery.
How is the type of surgery decided?
Prior to choosing the most appropriate surgery type, the patient is carefully evaluated.
The patient is asked not to wear contact lenses for at least 5 days prior to the evaluation date. Evaluation includes testing central corneal thickness, corneal topography, clinical slit lamp examination, autoref and refraction.
Depending on the test results the type of surgery is decided by the doctor and discussed with the patient.