Who and when discovered the laser eye surgery technique?

In the 1950s, Jose Barraquer, a Spanish ophthalmologist, discovered a method of surgically changing the shape of the eye's cornea. His method was improved by Syvatoslav Fyodorov, a Russian ophthalmologist and surgeon. Thanks to the radial keratotomy method, Fyodorov was able to remove the glass fragments from the eye of a child who damaged his eye as a result of the spectacle lenses stinging after he fell, by making radial (radial) incisions from the pupil towards the outer borders of the eye. After the cornea healed, the child's vision was much better than before the accident. This success of Fyodorov led to an increase in interest in the field of refractive surgery.

José Ignacio Barraquer Moner (24 January 1916 – 13 February 1998) was a Spanish ophthalmologist and inventor born in Barcelona who did most of his life's work in Bogotá, Colombia. His original pioneering investigations on corneal transplants and correction of corneal refraction led him to be designated as “Father of modern Refractive Surgery”. His ophthalmological surgical techniques and inventions are now in routine use by the ophthalmic community.

In 1968, an Indian doctor, Mani Lal Bhaumik and his colleagues, at the University of California, invented a UV laser with a wavelength of 193 nm, called the excimer laser, which is obtained by electrical excitation of an argon-fluoride gas mixture. This method continues to be a treatment method that has been used in the treatment of refractive errors and has an incredible sensitivity since then. In 1973, Bhaumik shared the details of this new method at a meeting held at the Denver Optical Association and later patented this method. Seven years later, Rangaswamy Srinivasan, another Indian chemist, found that ultraviolet excimer laser beams could engrave each living tissue without damaging the surrounding tissue.

Svyatoslav Nikolayevich Fyodorov (born August 8, 1927 – June 2, 2000) was a Russian ophthalmologist, politician, professor, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He is considered to be a pioneer of refractive surgery. He was also one of the candidates in the 1996 Russian presidential election, running as a member of the Party of Workers' Self-Government.

Working on all these findings, Italian Lucio Buratto and Greek Ioannis Pallikaris discovered the laser eye surgery method called LASIK in 1990. This method was a more stable method compared to the methods that came before it and did not contain most of the possible problems that may occur during and after the operation. Although other laser eye surgery methods developed after LASIK have improved this method in terms of performance, the limitations of LASIK have paved the way for the development of other treatment methods in this area.