1Refractive surgery (in some form) goes back farther than you might think. Archaic attempts at vision correction have been found as far back as 13th-century Italy, where the very first eyeglasses were crafted. Even laser vision correction has a longer history than you might think, as doctors around the world have long sought a more permanent solution to correcting vision problems. In the 1970s, one invention – the excimer laser – propelled the field of vision correction toward the solution. The laser used for Laser Vision Correction is a cold laser. It was initially developed by IBM to precisely etch computer chips. This laser has the ability to divide a red blood cell into several pieces. By the late 1980s, doctors were developing and perfecting photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), the procedure which preceded LASIK. B R I E F H I S T O R Y O F R E F R A C T I V E S U R G E R Y 4