Myopia surgery is highly praised, but why do many ophthalmologists not perform it themselves?

It's summer vacation now, and a large number of friends are considering having "myopia surgery".

As a myopic patient who has worn frame glasses for 10 years, I am eager to have myopia surgery.

But... many doctors who perform myopia surgery still wear frame glasses themselves! Is myopia surgery reliable?

This time, Dad’s review friends “formed a group” to undergo myopia surgery and personally experienced the entire process of preoperative examination-surgery-postoperative recovery.

As a science blogger, we chose to record the entire process, hoping to provide a reference for everyone.

1. Principle of myopia surgery There are ciliary muscles, lenses and retina in our eyeballs.

When looking at distant objects, the ciliary muscle relaxes and the lens becomes thinner, so that the image will fall accurately on the retina.

But if we look at something close, the lens is still very thin and the image will fall behind the retina. So the ciliary muscle becomes a "worker" and starts working diligently.

However, the ciliary muscle works like a spring. If you use your eyes at close range for too long, they will be in a state of long-term tension, causing their elasticity to become increasingly poor. In order to relax the ciliary muscle, the retina will quietly retreat.

If this state lasts too long, the ciliary muscle will not be able to return to its original state. This behavior can be summarized by a line of lyrics: Some people, once missed, will never come back~

Therefore, when you look at distant objects, the image cannot reach the retina. Gradually, you will experience the myopia package of "hermaphroditism at one meter away, and indistinguishable between human and animal at three meters away".

Facing this no longer clear world, we can only go to the store to get a pair of glasses with the right degree. What myopia surgery does is to turn this pair of visible glasses into "invisible glasses".

2. Types of myopia surgery There are two common surgical methods on the market, namely lens implantation surgery and laser surgery. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages and suitable groups. We roughly summarize them into a chart:

Next, let’s talk about the respective situations of these two types of myopia surgery.

1. ICL lens implantation

During ICL implantation surgery, a small incision is made at the edge of the cornea, and the doctor will inject a foldable lens. The lens will naturally expand, and the doctor will use tools to adjust the position of the lens, and the surgery is complete.

In layman's terms, the whole process is equivalent to inserting a thin and soft lens into the eye.

2. Laser Surgery

The cornea has five layers, of which the stroma accounts for 90% of the total thickness. The epithelial layer can repair itself after being cut, but it is difficult to repair the stroma after being cut.

Based on this principle, laser surgery uses the method of cutting off a part of the corneal stroma layer, which is equivalent to integrating the power of the lens (concave lens) into the eye.

Femtosecond

During the all-femtosecond surgery, the doctor will adjust the operating lever to let the machine aim at the eye and gently suck the eyeball. The femtosecond laser will penetrate the epithelial layer and elastic layer of the cornea and directly "embroider" a lens on the stroma.

According to the description of our choreographer, the scene was like this: white mist rose in circles from the outside to the inside in front of your eyes, and it felt like Elsa was standing on your nose and dancing.

Emmm...I don't know why she had her eyesight surgery and acted like a princess?

After the machine cuts off the unwanted part, it also makes a small incision of 2-3 mm. The doctor pulls out the unwanted part through this small incision, and the operation is over.

Semi-femtosecond LASIK

During semi-femtosecond surgery, the laser cuts a "cap" on the cornea, which we call a corneal flap.

The doctor will lift your veil, oh no, lift your corneal flap, and ablate the unnecessary cornea in the stroma. After completion, the corneal flap will be put back and you just need to wait for the incision to heal.

Surface Surgery TPRK&Smart

Compared with other myopia surgeries, surface surgery does not involve any equipment coming into direct contact with the eyes, and the surgical process is relatively easy.

The laser will directly ablate the corneal epithelium, elastic layer and stromal layer that need to be cut, and then wait for the corneal epithelium to heal on its own. Therefore, the first few days after the operation may be uncomfortable.

3. Preoperative preparation: Choose a good hospital and a good doctor

It is recommended to choose a professional ophthalmology hospital or a tertiary hospital in first- and second-tier cities with advanced equipment, and an ophthalmologist with rich surgical experience to perform the surgery.

Before choosing, you can read more about the doctor's information and hospital conditions, and never go to an irregular institution for surgery. Otherwise, it may lead to insufficient or excessive corneal cutting, which will not only fail to improve your myopia, but also may cause undercorrection (incomplete correction) or overcorrection (hyperopia).

What’s worse, you may be forced to undergo surgery even though you do not meet the surgical conditions, which may lead to serious sequelae!

Monitor your degree changes one or two years in advance

Surgery can only solve the problem of blurred vision caused by myopia.

Therefore, you must make sure that your myopia does not increase by more than 100 degrees in the past one to two years before undergoing surgery. This is the key to preventing your vision from regressing after surgery!

Allow enough time for preoperative examination

There are many items to be checked and it takes a very long time.

Antibacterial eye drops need to be used for 1-3 days before the operation. It is not possible to perform the operation on the day of the examination, so enough time must be left in advance.

Other preparations

Fundus examination and eye examination require mydriasis, so when going to the hospital for examination, be sure not to drive or ride a bike by yourself.

You should stop wearing soft contact lenses 7 days before the examination, hard contact lenses need to be stopped for 1 to 3 months, RGP lenses need to be stopped for 1 month, and OK lenses need to be stopped for 3 months.

Different hospitals use different examination equipment. If you go to one hospital for examination and then want to go to another hospital for surgery, some items will need to be re-examined.

4. Surgical risks: When using laser surgery to treat myopia, the endings of the trigeminal nerve are likely to be interrupted. In the early postoperative period, there may be uncomfortable symptoms such as dry eyes and night glare. Generally, these symptoms will disappear about one month after the operation.

Although, if you are well prepared before surgery, the probability of postoperative problems will be greatly reduced. However, any surgical operation has risks!

The most common ones are:

Vision regression

Actually, it is not your eyesight that has deteriorated, but your myopia that has increased. We emphasize again that myopia cannot be cured!

Myopia surgery only improves the symptom of myopia that causes you to have difficulty seeing clearly, but it does not cure your chronic myopia problem.

Some medical institutions put out advertisements claiming to "cure myopia" to deceive consumers. We should open our eyes and carefully identify them.

Intraoperative eye infection

All myopia surgeries will cause wounds, and wounds will have the risk of infection. The surgical conditions of the hospital are very important! Once again, I emphasize: choose a regular hospital! Choose a responsible doctor!

Sequelae

A very small number of people may experience the following after surgery: eye infection, keratoconus, retinal hemorrhage, corneal flap complications, etc.

So before undergoing surgery, you must think carefully about whether you are willing to take these risks in exchange for a future without wearing glasses.

Corneal flap displacement

If you really like boxing and other activities that involve physical collisions, please do not undergo semi-femtosecond and ICL lens implantation surgery! Because there is a risk of corneal flap and lens displacement after the surgery.

However, activities such as bungee jumping, swimming, and roller coaster riding can be carried out after recovery from myopia surgery.

To put it simply: if your daily activities include behaviors like "others beating you up", please don't have surgery!

Regarding myopia surgery, I believe that most people feel the same as I did before undergoing the surgery: excited but conflicted.

After the heart surgery, life will be much more convenient; but I am worried about what to do if the surgery fails.

We hope that everyone who is at the crossroads of whether to undergo myopia surgery can conduct a thorough preoperative examination, understand the surgical process and potential risks, and confirm that they can withstand the worst outcome before carefully making the decision that is most suitable for them.

This is why we documented the surgery.

After all, everyone has the right to choose; but everyone has to bear the consequences of their own choices.

Everyone is welcome to share this article with those who are confused about "myopia surgery".

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