What Your Doctor Means When He's Talking LASIK

This is a basic glossary of general medical terms that you may encounter when discussing LASIK eye surgery with your physician. At a LASIK center, the doctor, nurses or other staff members should be happy to explain LASIK in terms you can understand. This is for your reference.

ANATOMY

Accommodation: the ability of the eye to change focus from distant objects to near objects.Anterior chamber: fluid-filled area between the cornea and the lens.

Aqueous humor: fluid in the anterior chamber.Iris: colored ring of tissue behind the cornea and in front of the lens.

Lens: the part of the eye that provides focusing power by changing shape to allow to focusing at different distances.

Optic nerve: fibers connecting the eye to the brain.Pupil: small black dot in the center of the iris that changes diameter in response to light and lets light into the eye.

Refraction: bending of light as it passes from one medium into another.

Refractive Power: ability of the eye to bend lightRetina: light-processing membrane at the back of the eye.

Sclera: the white, outer layer of the eyeball.Stroma: middle layer of the cornea (LASIK changes shape of this to correct vision.)

Tear film: water and other chemicals that lubricate the eye.

Visual Acuity: clarity of vision.Vitreous Humor: the transparent, colorless mass of gel that fills the center of the eyeball.

DOCTORS

Ophthalmologist: a medical doctor who diagnoses & treats eye disease and visual disorders both medically and surgically, including LASIK.

Optician: technician who makes and fits glasses and dispenses contact lenses.

Optometrist: professional who diagnoses, manages, and treats eye disease and visual disorders.

VISUAL PROBLEMS

Astigmatism: misshapenness of the cornea or lens that causes distortions of images on the retina (LASIK can correct some of these distortions.)

Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA): best vision a person can have with corrective lenses (Even if LASIK doesn't bring vision to 20/20, with glasses excellent vision is now easily achieved.)

Diopter: measurement of refractive error. Your surgeon will talk about diopters when telling you how bad your eyes are.Ectasia: progressive corneal thinning and bulging.

Emmetropia: no nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. (This lucky person doesn't need glasses, contact lenses, or LASIK.)

Hyperopia: farsightedness. Inability to see near objects more clearly than distant objects.

Nearsightedness: common term for myopia.Plano: no refractive error.

Presbyopia: deterioration of near vision caused by stiffening of the eye's lens by age. (Unfortunately this is not correctable by LASIK.)

Refractive Errors: flaws in the focusing ability of the eye - hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia.Refractive surgery: procedure intended to decrease the patient's vision problems. (LASIK is a popular choice for this.)

Snellen line: the row of same-sized letters on an eye chart used to test vision.Symmetry of refractive error: vision problems in both eyes are nearly the same.Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA): vision without corrective lenses.

This is just the beginning of the new terms you may encounter when considering LASIK eye surgery. For more terms, see the Glossary of LASIK Terminology.
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