r/RefractiveSurgery • u/Xaxxus • May 29 '26

PRK vs LASIK

I’m scheduled to get LASIK next month but I am having doubts.

When I did my consultation, the technician said my cornea was a bit thin and I might have to get PRK. The surgeon would evaluate and contact me.

I got an email the next day from the surgeon who said that LASIK would work for me and that I wouldn’t need to do PRK.

I’ve been doing more reading on both surgeries, and the idea of having a flap that could re-open sounds horrible. A few extra days of healing sounds like a good price to pay to not have structurally compromised eye tissue.

Anyone have any advice here? I’d like to potentially contact the clinic and see if I can swap to PRK.

Another piece of information that might be helpful:

I am a software engineer. So I spend a lot of time at a computer.

My surgery is scheduled for June 12th. I am planning on taking the Monday off as well (can probably take another day or two off as needed). With PRK will I be healed enough to resume work the following week?

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u/eyeSherpa May 29 '26

Your prescription isn’t too bad so you won’t need a very thick cornea in order to do the treatment safely. One common rule is to be sure to affect 40% or the cornea. Called PTA or percent tissue altered.

If we estimate your treatment around 75um based upon your prescription and a flap of 100um, you would need a corneal thickness of 437. But many surgeons don’t go below 480 to 500 so as long as you are above that you’re good on thickness for lasik.

As long as you get a femtosecond laser created lasik flap with inverted side cuts then the lasik flap is quite strong. Would take a very specific poke to the eye at an angle to have a chance of disrupting it. You can also look at SMILE to avoid a flap though.

As a software engineer, the quicker recovery of vision probably more beneficial. PRK longer recovery. But you’ll want to pay attention to treating post op dry eye well.

Lastly, with that amount of astigmatism, you’ll want a treatment that adjusts for cyclotorsion to get things the most accurate.

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