Corneal Surgery Options

AK Eye Surgery

Astigmatic Keratotomy - One of the earlier and widely accepted methods of correcting nearsightedness was called Radial Keratotomy (RK). For those patients who had astigmatism along with their nearsightedness, Astigmatic Keratotomy (AK) was also performed.

Astigmatism is caused by a cornea that is more curved (steeper) in one axis than the other, much like a football. This causes light to focus on more than one place on the retina, resulting in blurry or multiple images.

The AK procedure places arced incisions in the steeper axis (outside of the optical center of the cornea) causing the cornea to relax and become more spherical or round like a baseball. With a spherical cornea, light rays come to focus at one point on the retina, resulting in a clearer image.

RK Eye Surgery

Radial Keratotomy Surgery - Treats nearsightedness and or astigmatism. RK permanently changes the shape of the cornea as a result of making a number of incisions around the center of the eye. This causes the center of the cornea to flatten, which changes the focusing power of the cornea.