eye floaters after relex smile (refractive eye surgery)

[shabeer85]

Hi, i am junior doctor. I had undergone relex smile surgery few months ago and have started noticing floaters in both my eyes 2weeks after the surgery. I had undergone this surgery after reading about the wonders of this 3rd generation lasik. For some reason, before undergoing lasik, I started to feel comfortable when I removed my spectacles. Better peripheral vision, greater awareness of thoughts and surroundings. That prompted me to get my eyes corrected. I was moderately myopic before the surgery and did not expect this outcome from surgery. Are these floaters related to the Lasik? The surgeon who has done the surgery says my retina is healthy, no PVD. What can I do to reduce or eliminate the floaters?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

First of all SMILE surgery stands for SMall Incision Lenticule Extraction. It's a new alternate for LASIK with great progress.  Many myopic patients report being more aware of floaters after all types of surgery: cataract/IOL, LASIK, laser, retina, etc. It is most likely that the floaters are incidental to your surgery whether being more aware of the vision and testing each eye or the new focal point of your eye without glasses.  There is no treatment for floaters that is safe and effective. Most floaters either settle to the bottom of the eye out of the line of sight or the brain tunes them out (neuro-adaptation) or both.

[shabeer85]

Hi Dr Hagan,

When you say these floaters are incidental to the surgery I had, do you mean that they have been caused by a mechanical disruption of my vitreous during surgery? Or am I just being more aware of them as my vision has gotten better? The latter is what I was told by the opthalmic surgeon who had performed the surgery. I had never visualised any floaters when i was wearing my spectacles.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Either of the two scenarios are possible and can't say which.  Most people see more floaters after cataract surgery.  Most because they are seeing better and checking their vision more often.