General anesthesia is not used. The cornea has no blood vessels and bleeding does not occur.

However, after surgery some patients experience the following symptoms:

• fluctuating vision, including halos around lights.
• under-correction or over-correction
• infections of the cornea which can result in permanent vision loss (unusual)
• scar of the flap incision which can result in permanent vision loss (unusual)
• difficulty seeing at night due to glare (light sensitivity)
• dislodgement of the flap, even long after surgery