Special Interests

My special interests are in refractive surgery, Lasik, Lasek and PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy), and I am the only surgeon in Gloucestershire undertaking laser refractive surgery. Recently I have added implantable contact lenses and phakic implants to my practice and can now offer these devices to those patients whose prescriptions are beyond laser surgery.

Many patients are sent to me by High St Laser companies when prescriptions are outside of their ability to treat and all surgical work is undertaken in a full hospital environment.

A thin layer of cornea is gently folded back

The light from the excimer laser re-shapes the internal tissue

The LASIK Procedure

LASIK is a surgical procedure intended to reduce a person's dependency on glasses or contact lenses.

LASIK stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis and is a procedure that permanently changes the shape of the cornea, the clear covering of the front of the eye, using an excimer laser. A knife, called a microkeratome, is used to cut a flap in the cornea. A hinge is left at one end of this flap. The flap is folded back revealing the stroma, the middlesection of the cornea. Pulses from a computer-controlled laser vaporize a portion of the stroma and the flap is replaced.

Microkeratome

In comparison with traditional laser treatment (PRK) LASIK provides much quicker healing, especially for high vision errors. In addition, LASIK does not cause as substantial irritation of the eye as traditional laser treatment often does.

Optically, LASIK works in the same way as ordinary laser treatment. The correction occurs through a permanent change of the curvature of the cornea's surface. The change, however, is indirect and the surface itself is not treated.

However, for extreme refractive errors LASIK is not a suitable method as the remaining part of the cornea will be too thin. Here ICL can be an alternative, possible in conjunction with LASIK.