LASIK’s problems coming to light
Millions of Americans have undergone laser eye surgery to correct poor vision, and together with the popularity of the procedure, something else is going into areas of interest: its dangers.
The advertising stresses the safety of surgery, and most of the procedures are successful. Tiger Woods, que se basa en great vision as the best in the world of golf, fields as a quick and easy way to restore clear vision. Even the U.S. Air Force, long skeptical of surgery, has changed its policy in May to allow those who had LASIK apply for pilot training.
But every year thousands of Americans who undergo LASIK are left with chronic pain, dry eyes, distorted night vision and even blindness, according to the Food and Drug Administration statistics.
LASIK - which means assisted by laser in situ keratomileusis - uses lasers to cut and reshape the cornea. It can improve the hearing without complications, but the failures of equipment, a surgeon’s mistake or the failure to screen patients whose eyes are not well suited for the treatment can cause the operation to go wrong.
The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, which represents about 9000 Ophthalmologists specializing in laser eye surgery, estimated that only 2 percent to 3 percent of the more than 1 million LASIK surgeries each year is lost. But the FDA clinical trial records show that six months after surgery, until 28 percent of patients complained of dry eye, until 16 percent had blurred vision and until 18 percent had difficulty driving at night.
LASIK surgeons at Duke University Eye Center in Durham, North Carolina, are among the best trained and best equipped in the field. But even surgery at Duke has damaged beyond repair some patients eyes.
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Kotsovolos Matthew, 38, of Raleigh, NC, had more reason than most patients to feel confident about LASIK. It was the Duke Eye Center Chief Finance. As an employee, he said, he promised “red carpet treatment” and the procedure will be free.
The surgery on June 8, 2006, gave him the vision 20-20, but left him with dry eyes intensely and terrible facial pain. He wakes up with pain in their eyes each morning, puts on special glasses to conserve moisture eye and wondered if the pain in his face will start to kick in
“I traded in my glasses for the permanent pain, headache, eye pain and these things,” said Kotsovolos, pointing to the glasses.
How many LASIK patients develop postoperative is obscured by the lack of regulation and reporting. Given that health insurers do not pay for LASIK, usually do not track complications. The Food and Drug Administration does not require reports from doctors, enforcement and regulation has been confined largely to malfunction recalling laser.
Evidence of Problems accumulate. Some of the strongest is the growing market for contact lenses designed for people who have undergone LASIK and still have vision problems, some looking worse than before surgery. A major goal is post-LASIK MedLens responsible for innovation, Front Royal, Va.., Company founded in 2000.
Robert Breece, an optometrist and MedLens’ president, said his company offers contacts to drive more than 2500 post-LASIK patients annually, and that companies is growing around 10 percent each year. Breece said that his company serves more than 200 people per year who have been severely disabled by surgery.
“I do not get to talk with LASIK patients happy,” he said.
By the end of the year, SynergEyes Carlsbad plans to bring to market the first line of contact lenses specially designed for laser eye surgery patients with complications that can not tolerate hard lenses.
Patients with complications are starting to fight for the Internet and through support groups. Medical research over the past three years has produced an analysis of LASIK eye quite worrying that some surgeons have begun to facilitate outside the procedure.
“We have learned the limitations of LASIK,” said Dr. Stephen Pflugfelder, a professor of ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
An expert in laser eye surgery for more than 15 years, Pflugfelder is increasingly falling behind in the older, less invasive known as Photorefractive Keratectomy, or PRK, which involves only the surface of the eye.
Over the past three years, the number of LASIK procedures at Baylor has declined about 70 percent to about 50 percent of all laser eye surgeries.
At Duke, LASIK is about 80 percent of laser eye surgeries. Dr. Alan Carlson, head of the Duke Eye Center, is comfortable with that.
“The dry eye has not been a big problem,” said Carlson.
The University buys the most sophisticated laser on the market, he said. Patients are selected for the risk factors and informed of what can and can not wait LASIK. A surgeon can even make LASIK in one eye at a time.
The federal privacy laws prohibit Carlson talk about individual patients. “But the head of the Duke Eye Center LASIK recognized that can cause serious complications.
“It’s imperfect surgery in an imperfect world,” he said.
Related posts:
- The Light of the Body is the Eye: LASIK Gives You Back the Natural Vision It is goodbye to the irritation caused by contact lenses...
- Types Vision Problems Can Corrected By Laser Eye Surgery Visit this site to read an article from the FDA...
- What Does Cataract Eye Surgery Involve? More than one million cataract surgeries are performed each year...
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