Is LASIK Safe After Cataract Surgery? What You Need to Know

Cataract surgery can be a life-changing experience, offering patients the chance to improve their vision and eliminate the need for glasses or contact lenses. However, in some cases, corrective eyewear may still be necessary to achieve perfect 20/20 vision. LASIK surgery is a safe and effective option for correcting residual refractive errors after cataract surgery.

When Can LASIK Be Performed After Cataract Surgery?

Post Cataract Surgery – Before LASIK can even be considered as a possibility after cataract surgery, it is important that the patient’s eyes have fully healed. Typically, patients must wait approximately three months after the removal of their cataracts to become suitable candidates for laser vision correction.

LASIK is a safe and medically accepted procedure that can help improve a person’s vision after cataract surgery. Studies have shown that people who undergo LASIK after receiving a lens implant can usually reach a refraction level of ±1.00 D, which is enough to allow them to read, drive, or wear very mild lenses without any additional corrective measures.

Benefits of LASIK After Cataract Surgery

LASIK has been shown to be a beneficial, noninvasive and accurate procedure to correct refractive errors after cataract surgery. Recent studies have shown that using LASIK for the correction of residual errors provided exceptional results to almost 93% of patients.

LASIK is the most accurate vision correcting procedure that can be done after cataract surgery to resolve residual refractive error, which avoids further intraocular surgical procedures. Additionally, it may give better accuracy than piggy back IOL or IOL exchange particularly for correcting cylindrical numbers.