Refractive eye surgeries are used to treat common vision disorders such as myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia and astigmatism.

The first theoretical work on the potential of refractive surgery was published in 1885 by Hjalmar August Schiøtz, an ophthalmologist from Norway.

[1] In 1930, the Japanese ophthalmologist Tsutomu Sato made the first attempts at performing this kind of surgery, hoping to correct the vision of military pilots.

His technique, called keratomileusis, meaning corneal reshaping (from Greek κέρας (kéras: horn) and σμίλευσις (smileusis: carving)), enabled the correction, not only of myopia, but also of hyperopia.

In 1974 a refractive procedure called Radial Keratotomy (RK) was developed in the USSR by Svyatoslav Fyodorov and later introduced to the United States.

RK involves making a number of cuts in the cornea to change its shape and correct refractive errors.

Following the introduction of RK, doctors routinely corrected nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism using various applications of incisions on the cornea.

In 1983, Stephen Trokel, a scientist at Columbia University, in collaboration with Theo Seiler and Srinivasan, performed the first Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK), or keratomileusis in situ (without separation of corneal layer) in Germany.

[16] A related procedure is the implantation of phakic intraocular lenses in series with the natural lens to correct vision in cases of high refractive errors.

[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Some of these approaches are programmed into the devices ophthalmologists use to measure the refraction of the eye and the shape of the cornea, such as corneal topography.

It is believed that additional thinning of the cornea via refractive surgery may contribute to advancement of the disease[31] that may lead to the need for a corneal transplant.

Furthermore, some people's eye shape may not permit effective refractive surgery without removing excessive amounts of corneal tissue.

Although the risk of complications is decreasing compared to the early days of refractive surgery,[32] there is still a small chance for serious problems.

The choice of LASEK was made as it was felt it would give fewer complications than LASIK and less post-operative pain than PRK.