Refractive surgery
How many days off should you plan after laser eye surgery?
Your question
How much time off should I plan, and when can I drive, work and exercise again?
Our answer
After LASIK, vision returns within hours to days; after PRK, gradually over the first week. Since refractive surgery gives no entitlement to paid sick leave in France, the days off must be annual leave. After cataract surgery, normal activities resume the next day, with a month of caution about strain and dust.
One thing to settle before choosing a date
The official SFO sheet puts it in one sentence: since these are not diseased eyes, none of these operations is covered by the health system, and none gives entitlement to sick leave.
In other words, days off after refractive surgery are annual leave. All the more reason to choose the date according to the technique — two or three days of discomfort after PRK is not the same as the day after a LASIK.
After LASIK
Visual recovery is counted in hours to a few days. The instructions concern mainly what to avoid:
- do not rub your eyes — the most important instruction, and the longest-lasting: the cornea has just been thinned, and is mechanically weaker;
- for the following month, avoid anything that can irritate the cornea: dust, swimming pools, eyelid make-up;
- bring sunglasses for leaving theatre.
For work, driving, sport and the use of tools, the SFO deliberately gives no national figure: these are “to be specified with your surgeon”, because they depend on the eye, the job and the correction performed. That is settled in consultation, not copied from a table.
After PRK
Everything is shifted: two to three days of pain, a bandage lens worn continuously for a few days, and visual recovery “gradual from the first week”. The SFO advises planning a convalescence whose length is set with the surgeon, and insists on sunglasses in case of sun exposure.
In practice, PRK is more readily scheduled before a weekend or a quiet period than LASIK.
After cataract surgery
This is the best documented case, because the procedure is reimbursed: the French health insurance publishes precise benchmarks.
| Activity | Timing |
|---|---|
| Normal activities | from the next day |
| Sedentary work | 3 days on average |
| Physical work | about 2 weeks |
| Make-up | after 1 week |
| Swimming, intense sport | after 3 to 4 weeks |
| Heavy lifting, straining, dust | avoid for 1 month |
Driving is not expressed in days but as an outcome: it is advised against “until your sight is satisfactory and during the period of adaptation to new glasses”. A protective shield is worn at night for the first few days, and the final spectacle prescription comes about a month after surgery.
Both eyes on the same day?
The two operations do not follow the same rule. In refractive surgery, operating both eyes in one session is common practice. In cataract surgery, the French position remains that of the health insurance fund: one eye first, then the second a few weeks later. Same-day bilateral surgery exists and its safety data abroad are reassuring, but it is still little practised in France.
Further reading
Sources
- SFO — Information sheet 9A, corneal laser refractive surgery (January 2026)
- French health insurance — Cataract treatment (December 2025)
- SFO — Safety of same-day bilateral cataract surgery (2022)
Updated 26 August 2026