- This article or section should be merged with Photorefractive keratectomy
LASEK, an acronym for Laser-Assisted Sub-Epithelial Keratectomy, is an eye surgery procedure intended to reduce a person's dependency on glasses or contact lenses.
LASEK is a procedure that permanently changes the shape of the cornea using an excimer laser to ablate a small amount of tissue from the front of the eye, just under the eye's outer layer or epithelium, which is kept through the procedure and replaced to act as a natural bandage.
Because it does not involve a knife/microkeratome as used in LASIK the cornea's stability is left virtually unaffected, but there is more pain and visual recovery is slower than with the latter procedure; it is, however, faster than its older relative PRK.
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