Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery Blog

Medical professionals have been performing eye surgery for thousands of years. There are records of cataract surgeries that date back to ancient Greece. More recently, but still before the advent of what we would consider modern medicine, the medical world tried various surgical means to combat glaucoma. While these practices were not always successful, they paved the road for modern ophthalmologists and scientists.

There are records of rudimentary eye surgery being performed thousands of years ago. Cataract removals and varied attempts to cure glaucoma accounted for the majority of these operations. Though the methods may have been crude, these early pioneers paved the way for the eye surgeons of today who have developed and mastered the intricacies of corrective laser eye surgery. Without the foresight of these ancient medical pioneers, we may just now be developing ways to restore, repair, and enhance people’s vision.

We have images and depictions of eye surgery being done from several ancient cultures. Early medical pioneers understood that the cornea could develop a cloudy haze as people got older and they developed crude methods of cataract removal. They also developed primitive ways to relieve some of the pressure on the eye that is caused by glaucoma. Eye surgery is nothing new, and in spite of the great technological advances that have accompanied the development of corrective laser surgery, none of it would be possible without the work of those few forward-looking ophthalmologists.

The biggest factor in the advancement and capabilities of modern eye surgery has been the development of tools. Without modern surgical tools, eye doctors would be unable to perform the tasks required for corrective eye surgery. Precision cutting lasers make it possible to make intricate and detailed cuts. The fine nature of these lasers results in minimal bleeding at the surgery site, and no extraneous tissue damage to the other parts of the eye. The limits of vision surgery are largely controlled by the development of new and more advanced tools.

The natural progression of tool development has been instrumental in opening the doors to eye surgery. As in the advancement of every human society, tools are what allows a group of people to move forward. Whether it was metal weapons that made a people group dominant over those with stone, or a laser eye surgery tool that allows a doctor to be more precise than one using a knife, tools determine just how well we are able to perform.

Craftsman cannot perform great work without superior tools, and eye surgeons are no different. Without the diligent work of scientists behind the scenes, no amount of knowledge alone would give a lasik surgeon the ability to perform intricate eye surgery. Perhaps more than any other group, the dedicated scientists who have developed the laser technology behind lasik are responsible for the drastic leaps forward in corrective laser eye surgery. They are the unsung heroes of these medical miracles.

Another technological advancement that has increased the scope of what eye surgeons are able to do is computer imaging. Computerized scanners analyze the surface of the patients eye and create a detailed, three dimensional model that the doctor can examine before performing eye surgery. This helps the doctor in develop a plan for the surgical procedure. In some cases, the laser can be linked to the scanned image, and the computer can actually perform the surgery, knowing precisely where to cut, scrape, and re-shape. The computer is able to exercise a measure of precision that humans would not, and thus, increasing the accuracy of surgical procedures.

Though the development of laser technology for eye surgery is commonly thought of as a tool for corrective eye surgery, it is also used for other surgical procedures. In the past, a injury to the eye such as a detached retina would have required a micro surgery procedure in which the surgeon would have manually applied a thin silicon strip essentially to sew and splice the nerve back together. This was a difficult process and could have resulted in further damage to the patient’s sight. The development of laser surgical procedures has created a way to repair this type of injury with much more precision and accuracy.

As the scientific community continues to push forward in its development of laser-guided technology, the possibilities within the field of eye surgery will also increase. Ophthalmologists will be able to dream about treatments without limitation because the technology will be available to support those dreams. Corrective laser eye surgery is still a fairly new venture within the medical community. It seems that scientists have only scratched the surface of what they will eventually be able to accomplish using the technology that is growing and changing everyday.

The field of eye surgery will continue to grow and develop as the technological capabilities of the scientific community more forward. Lasik eye surgery is only the beginning of what will likely be accomplished over the next few decades. Computers have increased the development of technology to such a speed that the training required to use the technology takes longer than the advancements themselves. As long as eye surgeons are willing and able to devote themselves to a lifetime of learning, we have only scratched the surface of what is possible with corrective laser eye surgery.

We have only just seen the beginning of what ophthalmologic science is going to be able to accomplish. Firmly based upon the huge leaps that have been taken in eye surgery over the past few decades, scientists will continue to push the boundaries of exploration within the field of corrective laser eye surgery. Eye surgeons will continue to grow in their understanding and developers will continue to create new and innovative tools that allow these doctors to probe the depths of possibility that have been off limits until now.

David Odell is the owner of:
Eye Surgery - Know How Pages