Abstract

In the past decade laser photorefractive keratectomy (PRK, surgery of cornea using 193 nm excimer lasers) has become a very popular clinical procedure for changing the refractivity of the human eye. However, PRK occasionally produces postoperative complications such as night vision problems, decreased contrast sensitivity, halos, redness, photophobia, glare, etc. Some of these complications were related to corneal irregularity which appears due to evaporation of tissue in course of laser irradiation via thermomechanical mechanism. Possible photochemical consequences of PRK have been neglected, though some of PRK-induced corneal alterations, e.g. epithelian haze, can be of a photochemical nature.

© 1998 IEEE