LASIK surgery has been a wonderful advancement in vision improvement.  But how and when was it invented?

Although similar work had been ongoing for many years prior, it was 1980 when Rangaswamy Srinivasan, working at the IBM Research laboratory, discovered that an ultraviolet excimer laser could etch living tissue.  It did so with no thermal damage to the surrounding area and with great precision.  His work was published five years later by colleagues, who also founded VISX USA Inc., performing the first human VISX refractive laser eye surgery in 1989.

In the 90’s, patents for LASIK (so-called broad-beam LASIK and PRK technologies) were granted to US companies including VISX and Summit.  The FDA performed extensive testing and approved the LASIK procedure.  Since the 90’s, LASIK has been performed on millions of patients with a high level of satisfaction.  

For more information on LASIK, contact the LASIK experts at The Eye Clinic Surgicenter in Bilings.