transPRK

Hello, I am Dr Alexandre Balon, ophthalmologist at Clinique Saint-Pierre Ottignies, and today I am going to tell you about transPRK, a refractive surgery technique.

It is an all-laser technique, meaning that no instrument comes into contact with the eye apart from the laser beam itself.

The patient lies on the operating table and anaesthetic drops are instilled on the surface of the eye. A small eyelid speculum is put in place to prevent blinking, and you then look at a target light. The laser then carries out its action and reshapes the curvature of the cornea in order to correct the refractive error.

Next, a bandage contact lens is applied to the surface of the eye to promote healing. It is removed a few days later by the ophthalmologist, at the post-operative visit. A few days — at most a week — later, the patient can resume most of their daily activities.

The main advantage of transPRK is that there is no physical, mechanical contact with the eye. This laser acts directly on the surface of the cornea and therefore removes less corneal tissue, leaving the cornea stronger in the long term. This makes it possible to operate on patients whose corneas are thinner. It also helps preserve better corneal biomechanics in the long term, reducing the risk of corneal ectasia to a minimum. And, finally, since the corneal nerves are only very superficially irritated, the risk of dry eye is also lower.