Each pulse removes a microscopic amount of tissue by evaporating it, producing very little heat and leaving the underlying tissue virtually unchanged. With earlier refractive surgical techniques, vision was blurred immediately after surgery, and the recovery time was longer which made it necessary to separate the procedures on each eye by several weeks. With astigmatism, the front of the cornea is not equally curved-it is slightly oval, much like the shape of a football. Light rays that enter the eye are unequally bent and result in distortion of image. Anesthesia is not required.
Patients receive Valium and numbing eye drops, and are fully awake during the operation.
The procedure itself requires five or six minutes. Time in the office rarely exceeds two hours. Laura Blackley is looking forward to an active summer with her husband and three children. All this time that I've had kids and taken them to the pool in the summer, they'd beg me to swim with them. And I couldn't, because I had my hard contact lenses in.