Comment Refractive surgery is not elegant (Score 1) 550
Since I'm a PhD-student in ophthalmology and my subject touches this I'd like to add my two ören...
Fundamentally all refractive surgery creates two optical systems where there previously was one. I.e a small central area in the cornea with the new refraction and a periphery with the original refractive error. So in darkness the vision will be worse. This is not an elegant solution. Further, the incision to create the corneal flap permanently severs the (some) nerves going to the flap. This might lead to problems such as dry eyes etc. Annoyingly the cornea heals badly. Thus, the corneal flap is much weaker than the rest of the cornea, so in case of trauma it can break.
It is problematic that the standard measurement of visual function is (best corrected) visual acuity. Visual acuity measures only a small subset of our visual function. A more correct measurement is contrast vision and the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) of the eye. The CSF is analogous to the optical transfer function of the eye, but it also incorporates the neuronal contrast transfer at the retina.
The CSF can be, slightly incorrectly, described as the information transfer ability of the eye and visual system. The problem with refractive surgery is that while you might increase the visual acuity it often comes at the expense of decreased contrast vision. But since contrast vision is seldom tested....
Generally ophthalmologists aren't keen on having refractive surgery, at least those at the university hospital where I work.