LASER VITREOLYSIS

What is a Laser Vitreolysis?

Laser vitreolysis is a highly effective, minimally invasive outpatient procedure that is used to treat eye floaters. It is also known as “laser floater treatment”.

A laser is used to evaporate the vitreous opacities, by converting them into gas. The gas is then reabsorbed in the eye. This procedure results in the removal of the floaters or a size reduction where it is no longer impeding vision.

What Conditions Does Laser Vitreolysis Help?

Laser vitreolysis is performed to eliminate

eye floaters (cobwebs), and
shadows

Why is Laser Vitreolysis Required?

Laser vitreolysis is designed to improve the quality of life for the patient by removing annoying eye floaters and provide functional improvement.

They also aid in delaying or eliminating the need for more invasive surgery.

Who is Laser Vitreolysis Suitable For?

Generally, most people are suitable to receive laser vitreolysis.

Extra caution is advised in patients who are pregnant.

Laser Vitreolysis Procedure

The procedure includes:

preparing the patient’s eyes for the procedure
topical anesthesia in the form of eye drops is administered in both eyes
a contact lens may or may not be placed on each eye
a Laser light beam is directed through the eye for a few seconds through a special microscope

A session takes 15 – 60 minutes to complete, and the patient might need to undergo two or three sessions to get satisfactory results.

Recovery After Laser Vitreolysis Surgery

The patients are not advised to drive immediately after the treatment and should make alternative arrangements for transport.

Patients will experience some discomfort and temporarily blurred vision for up to 24 hours, but this varies from case to case.

Visual recovery is usually very quick after the procedure.

The patient might observe some dark specs following treatment, which generally go away with time.

Possible Risk or Complications of Laser Vitreolysis

Laser vitreolysis is a safe procedure with complications being very rare. The side effects that can occur on a rare basis include cataract formation and higher intraocular pressure.