Radial Keratotomy (RK)

Radial Keratotomy (RK) is designed to reduce or eliminate myopia, or nearsightedness. Nearsightedness is caused by the cornea being too steep or the eye too long for its corneal curvature. Light rays entering a nearsighted eye focus in front of the retina resulting in blurry vision. RK involves the placement of microscopic incisions outside of the central optical zone. This weakens the outer perimeter of the cornea and causes it to flatten, thereby moving the point of focus from in front of the retina to on the retina.

Radial Keratotomy was very popular in the 80s and early 90s but the advent of the Excimer Laser has added a high degree of accuracy to the correction of nearsightedness with procedures such as PRK and LASIK.