Cosmetic Surgery Travel is a travel company dedicated to planning your cosmetic or dental surgery vacation in Thailand and can arrange every aspect of your trip.

Medical tourism is growing world wide - an interesting article.

A CBS 60 Minutes report in the United States created great interest in the services of the Bumrungrad Hospital.

Other LASIK Links

Vision Simulations is an interesting site which shows you what kind of visual distortions you might experience if something does go wrong.

Nothing is quite as difficult as getting independent information about the quality of the LASIK equipment out there. The best source of information we have been able to locate is the FDA information page on LASIK, where you find details about all FDA-approved lasers. The lists of equipment you find there also shows, when a particular model was approved. This helps you to put some of the information you find on websites of LASIK clinics or hospitals into perspective.

Also worth checking out is the LASIK Checklist of the FDA. You will immediately notice a different tone. Most of the information material you will receive is compiled by parties with vested interests: the FDA is not one of them.

To help you feed your paranoia and help us to ensure that we have provided links to both sides of the LASIK yes-or-no discussion here is a link with all the negative stories: LasikDisaster.com.

History of LASIK

The concept of LASIK surgery was made possible by Dr Jose Barraquer, who around 1970 developed the first microkeratome, used to cut thin flaps in the cornea and alter its shape, in a procedure called keratomileusis.

LASIK surgery was developed in 1990 by Dr. Lucio Buratto (Italy) and Dr. Ioannis Pallikaris (Greece) as a melding of two prior techniques, keratomileusis and photorefractive keratectomy. It quickly became popular due to its improved precision and lower frequency of complications compared with those techniques.

In 1991, LASIK was performed for the first time in the United States by Drs. Stephen Brint and Stephen Slade. The same year, the Drs. Thomas and Tobias Neuhann successfully treated the first German LASIK patients with an automated microkeratome.

Surgical procedure

Patients wearing contact lenses are typically instructed to stop wearing them approximately 7 to 10 days prior to surgery. Prior to the surgery, the surfaces of the patient's corneas are examined with a computer-controlled scanning device to determine their exact shape. Using low-power lasers, it creates a topographic map of the cornea. This process also detects astigmatism and other irregularities in the shape of the cornea. Using this information, the surgeon calculates the amount and locations of corneal tissue to be removed during the operation. The patient is typically prescribed an antibiotic to start taking beforehand, to minimize the risk of infection after the procedure.

The operation is performed with the patient awake and functional; however, the patient is typically given a mild sedative (such as Valium or diazepam) and anesthetic eye drops. The surgeon operates the lasers, which make all of the incisions. A computer system tracks the patient's eye position 4,000 times per second, redirecting laser pulses for precise placement. A flap is cut in the cornea using a blade (called a microkeratome) or a femtosecond laser. A hinge is left at one end of this flap. The flap is folded back revealing the stroma, the middle section of the cornea.

Then an excimer laser (193 nm) is used to remodel the corneal stroma. The laser vaporizes tissue without causing damage to adjacent stroma in a finely-controlled manner. The layers of tissue removed are tens of micrometres wide.

Although relatively uncommon, complications due to LASIK do occur. The following are some of the more frequently reported complications of LASIK

• Dry eyes
• Over/undercorrection
• Visual acuity fluctuation
• Halo/Starbursts around light sources at night
• Light sensitivity
• Ghosts/double vision
• Wrinkles in flap (striae)
• Decentered ablation
• Debris/growth under flap
• Thin/buttonhole flap
• Induced astigmatism
• Epithelium erosion