Before I did my PRK surgery I tried to find out how thick Cornea I would have after the surgery. I found various forums and posts around the web on this topic, but never got a fully satisfying answer. Anyhow, here is my numbers at before my surgery and 3 months after. I will update this again at the 6 months checkup.
Before the surgery my correction was:
Left eye: -2.75 and -0.75 astigmatism
Right eye: -2.75 and -0.75 astigmatism.
My Corneal thickness was:
Left eye: 494 micrometer
Right eye: 495 micrometer.
The minimum thickness in Switzerland to do LASIK or FS-LASIK is 500 micrometer, that's why I did single-step trans-PRK instead.
Thickness at 3 month check up:
Left eye: 442 micrometer (-52)
Right eye; 426 micrometer (-69)
Based on my actual prescription the "cost" per diopter was:
Left eye: 18.9 micrometer/diopter
Right eye: 25.1 micrometer/diopter
Some thoughts about this:
First this is way more then I expected based on my google searches (the pages I found on internet said 8-15 micrometers per diopter).
Second there is a standard practice to over-laser a bit to compensate for certain back healing. I for example overheard my surgeon saying I was actually laser for -3.10 on right eye, assuming this way the same on the left eye, the new cost per diopter would be:
Left eye: 16.8 micrometer/diopter
Right eye: 22.3 micrometer/diopter
Now the numbers start to look more reasonable for the left eye, although still a bit high. The right eye still look a bit over-treated. However, my right eye got a strong overreaction and an aggressive healing response, including corneal haze, directly after the surgery. Due to this I had to use significantly more Steroid drops on my right eye during the first month. Steroid drops actually slows down the healing process. So my theory is that the difference in residual cornea is related to this. It could be that my right eye (or both) are still healing so the residual cornea might even out with time. I will ask my laser clinic to measure again at the 6 months checkup. What is interesting is now at the 3 months and 3 weeks point I have started to get the feeling that my right eye see slightly better then my left eye, a very small, but noticeable difference. I think this is to be expected though since my right eye is my dominant eye.
Okay, time to sleep here, will continue on this topic at the 6 months day.
By the way, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, I will try to reply as soon as I can.
