You have most likely heard some mention of LASIK surgery or vision-correcting laser surgery, and perhaps you’ve even visited a LASIK center near you to inquire about whether or not these kinds of procedures would benefit you. However, you probably don’t know as much about the fascinating history of refractive eye surgery.
Early Vision Correction
The College of Optometrists states that the first spectacles, or eyeglasses, likely originated from thirteenth-century Italy. There are also accounts of lenses being crafted out of rock crystal by Swedish Vikings, but it is possible that these were more decorative than functional. Many important figures throughout the 1200s were documented as wearing corrective eyewear, including St. Paul, Roger Bacon, and Alessandro Della Spina.
The First Laser Eye Surgery
Fast forwarding many years into the future, the first laser vision correction in humans was performed in 1988 on a woman who was sixty years of age. This woman was diagnosed with a malignant cancer that would eventually result in the removal of her eye, so she asked medical researchers if they would benefit from using her eye for medical experiments before it was removed. Three years later, Canada approved lasers for use in photorefractive keratectomy, the procedure successfully performed on the female volunteer in 1988, and the United States followed with its approval in 1995.
Continued Improvements
Now, LASIK surgery is one of the most common surgeries performed in the United States, with about 700,000 procedures completed each year. More than 8 out of 10 individuals who receive LASIK surgery can continue their lives completely free of glasses or contact lenses. In other words, Mayo Clinic states that you will most likely achieve 20/25 vision (or better) after completion of your refractive laser surgery.
If you want to learn more about LASIK surgery, visit a LASIK center near you in order to speak to an experienced physician about the risks and benefits of LASIK surgery and whether or not refractive surgery is the best way to correct your vision.
