A Cure for Near Sightedness - Radial Keratotomy
Radial keratotomy (RK) is a refractive surgical procedure
employed to correct myopia or nearsightedness. Radial Keratotomy
came into existence by accident rather than through meticulous
research. The procedure was discovered by Dr. Svyatoslav
Fyodorov when he operated one of his patients who had met with a
bicycle accident. The boy wore eyeglasses, which broke on
impact, and the glass splinters lodged into his eyes. The doctor
had to make several radial incisions in the corneal tissue in
order to extract the glass. When the cornea healed, the doctor
found that the boy's eyesight was significantly improved.
In radial keratotomy (RK), a series of micro-fine incisions are
made in the outer portion of the cornea with the aid of a
high-precision calibrated diamond knife. The surgeon administers
a local anesthetic, since the incisions are superficial and the
procedure is fairly painless. The corneal thickness of the
patient's eye is measured prior to the surgery. Before the
incisions are made, the diamond-edged cutting instrument is
precisely set under the operating microscope. Thus by flattening
the curvature of the cornea in such a manner, RK can easily
correct myopia or nearsightedness.
Radial keratotomy was first introduced in the United States in
the 1980s. Initially it was much of an investigational
procedure, with doctors operating only one eye at a time and
waiting for at least 3 months to observe the results, before
operating on the other eye. But the surgeons gained experience
over time and now they could well operate both eyes
simultaneously. Now, radial keratotomy is a minor surgery that
takes about 15 to 20 minutes for each eye.
Radial keratotomy is constantly improving, owing much to the
rapid advances in technology, and the fact that a number of such
procedures have already been performed successfully. However, RK
is not as precise as LASIK and PRK. Since, RK is less
predictable, only a few surgeons now perform this procedure.