laser vision correction (page 1)

 

Since its introduction nearly 20 years ago laser vision correction has evolved almost constantly, bringing ever greater safety and improving effectiveness hand in hand. When laser vision surgery is used to correct low to moderate levels of focusing errors by experienced specialist eye surgeons the procedure is safe and gives excellent results. This is the view taken by many well respected organisations such as the Royal college of Ophthalmologists, The national institute of clinical excellence (NICE) and the American food & drug administration (FDA).

According to NICE (www.nice.org.uk) more than 99% of patients who have mild to moderate degrees of focusing errors (the vast majority of patients fall into this group) corrected by laser vision surgery equalled or bettered the legal standard of driving (~6/12 or 20/40) with the vast majority (up-to 79% in this review) achieving normal vision of 6/6 (20/20). Less than 1% of patients experience complications which result in their vision declining to a level significantly worse than what they had before surgery.

Like all surgery there can be no absolute guarantees and it is important to establish the benefits you as a person would get and weigh them against the minimal risks of the surgery. Laser vision correction can be performed in several different ways:

· LASIK (laser in situ keratomileusis) is one of the more common methods,
· LASEK (laser sub-epithelial keratomileusis) is considered perhaps the safest of all types of laser correction
· Epi-LASEK is a variant of LASEK which is also considered to be extremely safe.
· SBK or sub-bowmans keratomileusis which attempts to merge the benefits of LASIK with Epi-LASIK promises to become an important method of laser vision correction over the next few years.

Am I Suitable?

You may be suitable for laser vision correction if you:
· Feel that spectacles/contact lenses are a nuisance in your job, sporting activities or personal life
· Have had stable vision for 2 years
· Have healthy eyes, are in good general health and are not taking medication that affects the healing process
· Are aged over 21 years
· You are not pregnant or breastfeeding
· Your prescription is long sightedness (hyperopia) upto +3.00 or short sightedness (myopia) upto -8.50 and/or astigmatism is between -4.00 to +4.00
· With glasses/contact lenses you are able to satisfy the driving standard of vision (20/40 or 6/12) or better in each eye
· People who are not able to meet the above criteria could still be considered for implant vision correction. See 'EyeDoc' guide to vision correction below.

Laser versus Implant for vision correction

    Prospective patients will often ask whether lens implant vision correction is superior to Laser vision correction. I prefer to think of suitability rather than superiority. Laser vision correction, with today’s modern technology coupled with our greater understanding of the eye's response to excimer laser, is a safe, well tolerated and highly effective treatment for patients with a wide range of defocus errors.
    As an example an individual with 3 dioptres of short sightedness (prescription -3.00) who is in their twentys or thirtys is ideally suited to laser vision correction. A patient with a higher prescription for example -8.00 short sightedness who is in their late fortys and has a strong preference not to be increasingly dependent upon close vision glasses (reading glasses) as he/she gets older is most likely better suited to a lens implant procedure (in this case refractive lens exchange with a multifocal lens implant). In this case Laser vision correction is technically entirely feasible and would likely still provide excellent distance vision but will leave the patient unsatisfied becasue laser cannot (at this stage !) address presbyopia.

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