Millions have turned to laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) to correct myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism, and do away with wearing glasses.
In the 1950s, Spanish ophthalmologist Jose Barraquer devised a method for surgically changing the shape of the cornea. His technique was developed further by Russian ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Svyatoslav Fyodorov, who created radial keratotomy while treating a boy whose glasses had smashed into his eye after a fall. He made several radial incisions from the pupil to the edge of the cornea to remove the glass. Once the cornea had healed, the boy's eyesight was much better. Fyodorov's success fueled much interest in refractive surgery.
In 1968, work was going on at the University of California, where Indian physicist Mani Lal Bhaumik and colleagues developed an excimer laser. This creates new molecules when xenon, argon, or krypton gases are excited. In 1973, Bhaumik told the world of the new technique at a meeting of the Denver Optical Society of America and later went on to patent it. Seven years later, Rangaswamy Srinivasan, an Indian chemist, found that an ultraviolet excimer laser could accurately etch living tissue without damaging the surrounding tissues.
Building on all this, LASIK surgery was finally put together by Italian Lucio Buratto, and Greek loannis Pallikaris in 1990. It was faster, more accurate, and had lower risk of complications than older techniques. Newer technologies have taken LASIK further performance-wise, but its limitations have also led to a host of other developments.
