Can a scar on the eye be removed with laser surgery?
I assume you mean a scar on the cornea of the eye.
To
a large degree a fibrotic scar can be removed with an excimer or femtosecond
laser. But it depends on how deep the scar is and also how close to the line of
vision through the cornea. It is not possible to simply remove the scar tissue
alone because the corneal tissue immediately adjacent to the scar will also be
removed. If a scar is fairly superficial and one is simultaneously removing
other corneal tissue by design (such as in LASIK or PRK), the results can be
excellent. But if removing a scar involves removing normal adjacent cornea, it
could also create corneal irregularities. These could simultaneously
affect the focusing power of the cornea adversely.
_Written by J. Trevor Woodhams, M.D. - Chief
of Surgery, Woodhams Eye Clinic