Laser treatment is used frequently to treat different retinal conditions. The following will help shed some light on different procedures and the rational behind using laser.

I am a diabetic and I recently had laser treatment to treat leaky vessels in my retina. Is this the same as LASIK?

No, The kind of laser used in LASIK procedures is called excimer laser. It has the ability to "shave off" very thin layers of tissue. The laser used in retina procedure is a heat producing laser (e.g. Argon laser) that tends to "weld off" leaky spots in the small vessels of diabetic patients. This laser is thought to also stimulate the eye to pump out fluid more efficiently and get rid of the swelling caused by diabetes.

I had a laser treatment for "abnormal vessels" from my diabetes; is this the same procedure as the one I had before for leaky vessels?

The kind of laser used in both procedures is the same but the goal and the technique are different. When treating leaky vessels, the goal is to seal or wells the leaky spots and also stimulate the eye to dry up the leakage. This requires light laset spots in the central area of the retina called macula. When treating abnormal growth of vessels on the retinal surface, we aim the laser to the very peripheral retina that is visually insignificant and sick from the diabetes. This part of the retina is what stimulate the growth of the abnormal bad vessels and the goal of the laser is to eliminate this abnormal vessels by "killing" that sick retina. Based on that the amount of power and number of shots used in this type of laser are more than that used for retinal swelling.

What is photodynamic therapy and how is it different from regular laser?

Photodynamic therapy is a procedure that uses a medication called Visudyne for the tretment of abnormal vessles growing under the retinal surface in Age-related macular degeneration, histoplasmosis and high myopia. For more detail on this procedure and how it differs from regular laser click on the link above.