Am I suitable for surgery?

Most suitable candidate

1. You are over 18 years of age and have had a stable glasses or contact lens prescription for at least 2 years.
2. You are affected by one of the common types of refractive error such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness, or astigmatism.
3. You do not suffer from any disease, ocular or general, that may affect the effectiveness of the surgery, or the ability to heal properly and quickly.  You are in good general health.
4. You are adequately informed about the benefits and risks of the procedure, as well as any suitable alternatives.  These include:

5. • non-surgical solutions, such as glasses, contact lenses, or orthokeratology (ortho-K), and
   • other surgical procedures, such as radial keratotomy (RK), conductive keratoplasty (CK), phakic lens implants, or lensectomy with intra-ocular lens implant.

6. You have realistic expectations, and understand that the surgery should reduce your dependency on glasses and contact lenses, but may not completely eliminate them.

Less suitable candidate

• You have certain eye problems or a history of eye problems, such as amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (muscle imbalance), severe dry eyes, previous eye surgery or injury, or any recurrent, residual or active eye conditions which may affect healing.  Other conditions that should be related to your doctor include keloid scarring with previous surgical healing, back problems, claustrophobia or other psychological problems, which may affect the surgery or recovery.
• You are undergoing treatment with medications such as steroids and immuno-suppressants.  Any medication that renders you immuno-compromised can adversely affect the healing process.
• You are suffering from conditions or diseases that slow healing (e.g., auto-immune or collagen-vascular disorders, uncontrolled diabetes), or certain eye viruses including herpes simplex and herpes zoster.
• You have significant scarring of the cornea.

May be a suitable candidate in future

• You are under 18 years old.
• You have unstable vision, which means that there have been fluctuations within the past 2 years.
• You are pregnant or nursing.  Women may be eligible for laser vision correction 2 menstrual cycles after nursing has been discontinued.  This is to allow for stabilisation of hormone levels so as to ensure effective surgery and prescriptions.
• You have a history of ocular herpes within one year prior to having surgery.  Surgery can be considered after one year has passed since diagnosis of the condition.
• You have refractive errors outside the range for treatment with current available technology:

• Short-sightedness (myopia) over -12.0 diopters.
• Long-sightedness (hypermetropia) over +6 diopters.
• Astigmatism higher than 6 diopters.

Not suitable

• You have a disease such as cataracts, advanced glaucoma, a corneal disease, a corneal thinning disorder (e.g., keratoconus, pellucid marginal degeneration), or a certain other pre-existing eye disease that affects or threatens vision.
• You do not give informed consent.  Before surgery can proceed, you must adequately discuss with your surgeon the procedure and associated risks and benefits, and give consent prior to undergoing surgery.
• You have unrealistic expectations.  You must understand the risks of surgery, and that the quality of the final outcome and healing process vary between individuals.