Corrective Eye Surgery
February 19, 2010
Conductive keratoplasty (CK) is a procedure that corrects farsightedness and presbyopia, which is the natural loss of vision caused by the aging process. Rather than using lasers or blades to slice a patient’s cornea, CK utilizes low-energy radiowaves. Because no cutting is necessary to correct vision with CK, many complications which occur in LASIK or PRK corrective eye treatments can be avoided.
How can radiowaves achieve the same results as laser surgeries? To correct near vision, a surgeon must make their patient’s cornea steeper. During a CK procedure, the doctor applies a topical anesthetic and uses a handheld instrument with a small hair-sized probe to apply radio frequency energy in a circular pattern around the periphery of the patient’s eye. At the areas where the doctor applied the radio frequency energy, the connective tissue shrinks. Because the surgeon focuses energy in a circle around the eye, the cornea becomes steeper as the tissue shrinks. The new curvature of the cornea’s surface affects the way light rays access the eye, correcting near vision.
After completion of the procedure, a patient needs no medications or eye patches and can usually return to normal activities within 24 hours. Vision typically begins to improve within a week after completing a CK treatment, and patients generally feel no discomfort during the process.
Any medical procedure has risks, but few patients experience negative effects from conductive keratoplasty eye correction treatment. Patients with pacemakers should not receive this treatment as the radio frequency energy may interfere with the device’s operation. Discomfort and glared vision are two of the more common ailments, and both can happen with any type of eye correction treatment. As with other surgeries, seeing rainbow-like rings around bright objects and lights (halo vision) may also occur. In extremely rare cases, a patient’s vision is over-corrected or the procedure results in tearing of the cornea. The best way to avoid the last two scenarios is to seek treatment from a highly-trained professional.
The CK procedure is most commonly used to correct the natural vision failure that occurs as one ages, but it works to correct farsightedness as well. CK is generally cheaper than laser surgeries and can be just as effective. Other sight issues, such as nearsightedness and astigmatism, cannot be helped by the procedure, but as it only costs $1000 to $1,700 per eye, the treatment may be a good option for some people.
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