Pre-Surgery Preparation
Prior to your Laser Vision Correction surgery, a Kaiser Permanente refractive surgeon and/or trained optometrist will give you a complete eye examination.

Soft contact lenses need to be removed for at least 7 days before your pre-operative evaluation. Toric Soft Lens (correct astigmatism) need to be removed 14 days prior to an evaluation. Hard or gas-permeable contact lenses need to be removed for at least 4 to 6 weeks before your pre-operative evaluation. Patients who have worn rigid contact lenses for over 20 years may need to remove them for up to 8 to 12 weeks.

The Surgery
All Kaiser Permanente refractive surgeons perform the Laser Vision Correction procedures at a modern laser suite. On the day of surgery, you will arrive at the laser center and your post-operative care will be reviewed with you. While you relax in a comfortable chair, a medical assistant will apply anesthetic eye drops to numb your eyes and you may be given a light sedative to help you relax. No general anesthesia is necessary. You will be awake and comfortable throughout the procedure.

The procedure begins with the surgeon placing a small device around your eye that keeps your eyelids open during the procedure. You will be asked to focus on a small blinking light during treatment. The typical procedure lasts approximately 15 minutes, with the actual laser treatment lasting about a minute.

Recovery
Immediately after surgery, your eye will be more sensitive to light and your vision may be blurred, though often more clear than your vision was without glasses or contacts before the surgery. We will provide you with dark shades to make your trip home more comfortable. You will not be able to drive home safely because of blurred vision and sedation, so you will need a ride home after surgery.

A few hours following surgery, you may experience some minor discomfort and irritation in your eyes. The eye drops you have been instructed to use usually relieve this discomfort. You should plan to relax and keep your eyes closed as much as possible for the remainder of the day.

The day after surgery, your vision will start to approach the clarity of your preoperative vision with contacts or glasses. Your doctor will check your eyes to make sure they are healing properly. Most patients are able to return to work within a few days after surgery.

Post-Operative Care
Your post-operative care is an important component of Laser Vision Correction. An exact schedule of post-operative appointments will be arranged and provided to you prior to your surgery date.

Enhancements
Often only a single laser treatment is necessary to achieve good results with Laser Vision Correction. After some refractive surgeries, however, your surgeon may recommend an “enhancement” several weeks or months after your initial surgery to further improve your results. An enhancement consists of an additional laser procedure to fine-tune the visual results of the first laser procedure. With certain types of procedures or in individuals with high degrees of nearsightedness and/or astigmatism, the chance of needing enhancement surgery could be higher.