The Risks of LASIK Corrective Eye Surgery: A Mass Transfer Approach to a Universal Concern

Abstract

The laser vision correction procedure, LASIK, requires a thin flap of the cornea to be created by a microkeratome knife. The focus of this project was to study and quantify the moisture loss from the tiny corneal flap using the concepts of mass transfer. Significant (10 fold) moisture concentration differences between the bottom and top surface of the corneal flap were observed, in conjunction with a strong dependence on the diffusivity of the flap as well as the length of the procedure time. Outer edges of the flap suffered the most water loss. Amount of moisture loss (85% in two minutes) in addition to the location(s) of ?dry spots? were hypothesized to influence one of the few recurrent complications of LASIK, flap misalignment.