Why can’t laser eye surgery cure blindness? Eli5
I’ve been told I’ve got diabetic retinopathy and it’s getting worse. They mentioned potential ‘sudden vision loss’ and I went on a wild internet search and ended up here. Can someone tell me how laser eye surgery can make eyes see perfectly when they usually need glasses for severe vision impairment but can’t do anything for full vision loss? Please. Like I’m five. Thanks!
In: Biology
There are lots of different kinds of vision issues. And they can be solved by different things. The most common issue is that the lens in the eye is not shaped quite right. Some are more convex then they should and some are less convex. This can easily be corrected with correcting glasses, contact lenses or a laser can change the shape of the corona in front of the lens. Some people who have extremely bad vision from this so that they are legally blind because they can not use their eyes can get corrective laser eye surgery to get some use for their eyes, although when it is that bad they often need glasses anyway.
What you are suffering from is not in the lens or any of the parts of the eye that a regular laser eye surgeon operates on. You have issues with your retina, the part in the back of your eye. It is a different part of the organ. You have to look at different types of treatments because you have a different condition in a different part of your eye then everyone who gets corrective laser surgery.
Coincidentally some of the treatments for diabetic retinopathy does involve laser surgery. But lasers are used in lots of different medical treatments in different parts of the body. This is a different laser then the one which is used in corrective eye surgery because it targets a different part of the eye and does a different thing to it. Also note that while some people can get their sight improved in this way you might not. All instances of the disease is different and can not be treated the same way. This is something your doctor needs to prescribe with the help of a surgeon.
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