PRK is the acronym for photorefractive keratectomy. This section provides detailed explanations on how these techniques were developed and how they work to improve vision. Let us explain the basic elements of how these types of procedures work by first explaining how a normal, healthy eye functions. In the normal eye, light enters and is bent or refracted by a clear, strong tissue at the front of the eye called the cornea. The cornea focuses incoming light onto the retina at the back of the eye.
Refraction refers to the way the cornea and lens bend light rays to focus properly on the retina.
It is a three-way relationship that, unfortunately, is based on hereditary and developmental factors. Just as you inherit your family's eye color, you may also inherit the way your cornea, lens, and retina operate to produce clear vision. Other vision problems include astigmatism and farsightedness. The hereditary and developmental factors that cause refractive errors such as nearsightedness can be corrected today with refractive surgery, also called laser vision correction. The introduction of laser systems for vision correction has provided ophthalmologists with quite precise and predictable methods to correct nearsightedness and astigmatism.