After PRK Surgery, is It Safe to Continue with Eye Drops for Allergies (Patanol) and Dry Eyes (Restasis)?

Yes, I typically advise my patients to continue with their allergy eye drops starting 24 hours following their procedure. 

Absolutely, and I would recommended doing so as both of those drops are excellent for controlling allergies and dry eye.

After PRK it is always best to discuss the use of all of your medications with your surgeon.  We recommend the use of Restasis for all of our refractive surgery patients.  Although there are less dry eye problems with PRK than LASIK, you should anticipate significant dry eyes after PRK for at least the first three to four months.  Restasis increases your own natural tear production and helps the dry eye problem.  Anti-allergy drops such as Pataday are also suggested as the presence of allergic eye disease increases the chance of haze after surgery.  Early in the postoperative period, anti-allergy drops may not be needed as the steroid drops taken to help with healing will likely handle allergies. 

Mark I. Golden, MD, FACS, FICS

You should always speak with your eye doctor about medications for your particular situation.  However, these medications can be continued after PRK.  Restasis can help the flucutuations in vision by diminishing dryness, which may be exacerbated during the healing phases after PRK.  If you are still on topical steroid eye drops for healing after PRK, you might not require the anti-allergy drop until this is discontinued.  

Upon completion of the postoperative eye drop regimen that is given to you following one of the procedures mentioned above, you can start again with any eye drop you have used in the past, for allergy, redness, etc. Typically, the post surgical regimen lasts about 2-4 weeks, and we like you  to avoid drops other than what we prescribe during this period. After that, however, there are no eye drop restrictions.