It’s hard to believe that laser eye surgery has only been around for about 23 years, with the most popular form, LASIK (Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis), only now coming up to its 20th anniversary.

Laser eye surgery involves changing the shape of the cornea (the clear covering at the front of the eye) to improve the sharpness of a person’s vision. It’s generally suitable for people with short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism (caused by an irregular curvature of the cornea).

The price of laser eye surgery was initially quite high because buying the lasers was a huge investment for clinics. The price came down and went up again, partly due to the new technologies, but like for like, the cost now is a lot less than when it was first introduced.

The first laser eye surgery was in mid-1990 and it was ALK (Automated Lamellar Keratoplasty).

Researchers attempted to standardize the results of surgical eye correction by changing the method with which it was performed. Automated lamellar keratoplasty, or ALK, completely did away with the practice of making radial incisions in the cornea. Instead, the surgeon creates a thin flap in the cornea using a blade called a microkeratome. Then, the shape of the cornea is changed and flattened by removing a small slice of tissue before the flap is replaced. In most cases, there is no need for sutures to hold the flap closed.
Though the results of ALK were more predictable than with RK, patients still reported a notable number of side effects. In the mid-1990s, laser eye surgery was introduced following the development of the excimer laser and its subsequent approval for use in surgical eye correction.