There are several different types of refractive surgery. Your Moorfields Private consultant will advise you on which is most suitable for you.

LASIK (Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) can correct short sight, long sight and astigmatism, accounting for around 95 per cent of refractive error.

Wavefront LASIK improves on conventional LASIK by tailoring the treatment to correct some elements of focusing that are averaged, rather than corrected individually, in your spectacle prescription.

Surface laser treatments such as PRK, EpiLASIK and LASEK are further alternatives – the recovery period is longer than for LASIK, but surface laser treatments may be safer if your cornea is relatively thin, or if other medical conditions predispose you against LASIK. Surface treatments are also recommended for people who lead active lifestyles where there is potential risk of eye injury – for example, professional sports people, police, armed forces, etc.

For the correction of higher refractive errors and for older patients, lens implantation techniques are often preferred. Cataract surgery is called Refractive Lens Exchange or Clear Lens Extraction (CLE) when the lens is not cloudy. This procedure removes the natural lens and replaces it with an artificial one. In patients who are not already in the reading glasses age group, lenses such as the ICL can be implanted to correct higher refractive errors without removing the natural lens.

For laser refractive surgery, you will normally be in hospital for 2-4 hours. Implant based procedures, which may be under general anaesthetic, usually require a longer stay of typically 4-6 hours.