Can LASIK Correct Astigmatism?

The answer is: yes! LASIK and PRK (“flapless LASIK”) are laser vision correction eye surgeries which can correct astigmatism with extremely high accuracy and precision. Even high degrees of astigmatism can be corrected with superb results.

What Is Astigmatism?

Astigmatism is an out of roundess of the cornea. The cornea focuses light because it is curved. If the optics of the cornea are very good, all the light rays that pass through the cornea will be focused to the same point. Think of holding a magnifying glass over a sidewalk to focus the sun’s light to a single pinpoint on the concrete. Since curvature causes focus, the best optics are when the curvature is the same throuhouot the cornea so all the light rays are focused with the same power and to the same point. With astigmatims, the cornea has different curvatures in different places. The best way to visualize astigmatism is to think of a football. If you hold a football tip to tip, the horizontal curvature is more gentle and the vertical curvature is steeper. Because these are different curvatures from each other, the football has astigmatism. With a basketball, by contrast, the curvature is the same no matter where you run your hand. So, while the football has astigmatism, the basketball does not have astigmatism.

How Does LASIK Correct Astigmatism/

LASIK uses a laser beam to very precisely reshape the cornea. In correcting astigmatism, the laser essentially rounds the football into a basketball. Once the cornea shape has been perfected, the astigmatism is gone. Its completely about shape.

Has LASIK Always Been Able to Correct Astigmatism?

No. LASIK originally could not correct astigmatism, but this was a very long time ago. LASIK has been able to effectively correct astigmatism for approximately 20 years, but somehow the myth that LASIK cannot correct astigmatism still lingers.

What Advances Have Occurred in Astigmatism Correction With LASIK?

The biggest breakthrough in astigmatism correction has been the introduction of customized wavefront LASIK technology. With this NASA-derived technology, the entire optics of the eye — including all the eye’s astigmatism — is measure by infrared lasers and a customized analysis of each person’s optical system is created called the “optical fingerprint”.  The optical fingerprint is uploaded into the laser to give a customized treatment which correccts the entirity of the patient’s optical errors, including all of the patient’s astigmatism.