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Radial keratotomy
- By Rebeca Walsh
- Published October 15th, 2008
- Eye
- Unrated
Radial keratotomy (RK) is a surgery that is done to correct myopia or nearsightedness. The procedure was discovered through an accident rather than performing extensive research process. The man behind the discovery was Dr. Svyatoslav Fyodorov who once operated one of his patients who had met with a bicycle accident. The patient was wearing eyeglasses, that broke in the accident.
Due to the whole incident, the glass went into his eyes. Dr. Svyatoslav had to make a lot of radial incisions in the corneal tissue to take the glass out of the eye. But after the operation, the healing of the cornea led to a significant improvisation in his eyesight.
In the process of this surgery, a series of micro-fine incisions are made in the outer portion of the cornea. This is done with the help of a high-precision calibrated diamond knife.
A local anesthetic is hired in the whole process. It is due to the fact that the incisions are superficial and the procedure is fairly painless.
The next step is to measure the corneal thickness of the patient's eye. It is done just prior to the surgery. Just before making the incisions, the diamond-edged cutting instrument is set in a perfect manner under the operating microscope. The surgery helps in correcting the nearsightedness as this is done by flattening the curvature of the cornea.
The surgery was first introduced in the United States in the 1980s. Initially the process was based on investigational procedure, as the chances of success were still yet to be known. At that time, doctors used to operate only one eye at a time and used to wait for at least 3 months to know about the success rate of the surgery, before operating on the other eye. But as with the increase in experience with the passage of time, the surgeons can now well operate both eyes simultaneously. Now, radial keratotomy is a minor surgery that takes about 15 to 20 minutes for each eye.
The process is constantly improving day by day, but as RK is less predictable, only a few surgeons now perform this procedure.
Due to the whole incident, the glass went into his eyes. Dr. Svyatoslav had to make a lot of radial incisions in the corneal tissue to take the glass out of the eye. But after the operation, the healing of the cornea led to a significant improvisation in his eyesight.
In the process of this surgery, a series of micro-fine incisions are made in the outer portion of the cornea. This is done with the help of a high-precision calibrated diamond knife.
A local anesthetic is hired in the whole process. It is due to the fact that the incisions are superficial and the procedure is fairly painless.
The surgery was first introduced in the United States in the 1980s. Initially the process was based on investigational procedure, as the chances of success were still yet to be known. At that time, doctors used to operate only one eye at a time and used to wait for at least 3 months to know about the success rate of the surgery, before operating on the other eye. But as with the increase in experience with the passage of time, the surgeons can now well operate both eyes simultaneously. Now, radial keratotomy is a minor surgery that takes about 15 to 20 minutes for each eye.
The process is constantly improving day by day, but as RK is less predictable, only a few surgeons now perform this procedure.