ASA Eye Surgery Procedure ASA eye surgery is used for those involved in contact sports, those with dry eyes, and for people whose cornea may be too thin to allow for the creation of the corneal flap required for LASIK eye surgery. During ASA eye surgery a small area on the corneal/epithelium (surface cells) is gently polished away. The laser reshapes the corneal surface in exactly the same way as for LASIK surgery. After ASA eye surgery, your surgeon will place a soft contact lens on the cornea to protect the eye and reduce discomfort while healing. Until the contact lens is removed, your vision will be blurred. The blurriness may go away within a short time or your vision may be that way for a number of months. You will be required to use medicated and lubricating eye drops to assist the healing process. It will generally take a few weeks for your vision to stabilize. For the first few days after either ASA eye surgery or LASIK eye surgery, you may experience discomfort, ranging from scratchiness, to actual pain. During this time, your vision may be blurry and/or may fluctuate between being clear and being blurry. In some cases, a patient's vision improves immediately after laser eye surgery, but later becomes blurry. These conditions affect patients differently. While they may not bother certain patients, other patients may not be able to tolerate the discomfort or lack of visual acuity, even on a temporary basis. The final outcomes of ASA eye surgery or LASIK eye surgery are identical; the difference is the healing time. You may need glasses or other corrective lenses after the Procedure on a temporary or permanent basis. ASA eye surgery or LASIK eye surgery will not prevent, and may unmask, the need for reading glasses, particularly for patients over forty years of age. You will be asked to consent to having your ASA eye surgery recorded, video taped and/or photographed. ASA eye surgery may be video taped for clinical purposes and may also be photographed for research and academic purposes. These recordings are not available for patient use or reproduction. ASA eye surgery can be performed without being recorded. ASA eye surgery is performed on an outpatient basis at Bellevue LASIK. You will be able to go home after the procedure, but you will need to arrange for someone to drive you home and bring you back the next day for a follow-up visit. Thereafter you should not drive until your vision is clear and your doctor has told you that your vision is adequate to drive. ASA eye surgery generally requires twenty (20) minutes of operating room time, but the actual duration may vary according to the type and amount of correction needed. A mild sedative, such as Valium or Ativan, may be taken to help you relax. You will be given eye drops to numb your eyes. During ASA eye surgery, you will be lying on the laser bed or reclining chair and your eyelids will be held open with a device called a lid speculum. You will be asked to focus on a special fixation light in a microscope.