"Dr. Kawesch was also very
complete in his exam and explained the procedures
and choices in having the surgery, not having
the surgery and what type of correction
to have..."
"More than 50 years ago, Professor
José I. Barraquer, M.D., made initial
strides in lamellar refractive surgery,
and proposed the theory that adding or removing
corneal tissue can modify the refractive
power of the eye. From the very start, Dr.
Barraquer realized the importance of preserving
each layer of the cornea, a milestone in
the development of modern lamellar refractive
procedures..."
LASIK for myopia of up to -10 D is a safe
and effective procedure with slight myopic
regression that slows down with time and
a high rate of BSCVA increase in the long-term.
After lamellar refractive surgery, the
topography of the cornea is significantly
altered. Although the postoperative keratometry
readings are steeper than the actual curvature,
they are reasonably reliable for determining
the base curve of the initial trial lens,
validating the use of conventional methods
of fitting rigid contact lenses in patients
who have had MKM.
Larger pupil diameter is not significantly
associated with postoperative satisfaction
and visual function as measured with the
RQL. Rather, postoperative uncorrected visual
acuity is confirmed as a strong predictor
of patient satisfaction after refractive
surgery.
Patients with large pupils
had more quality of vision symptoms in the
early postoperative period, but no correlation
was observed 6 months after surgery. Factors
related to long-term symptoms include the
level of treatment (preoperative myopia),
preoperative contrast acuity, postoperative
UCVA, and residual cylinder. Most of the
variability in visual quality could not
be explained by preoperative or clinical
outcome measures, including pupil size.
"From his company’s
advertisements on MySpace to ringing endorsements
from sports stars, Dr. Gary Kawesch is fast
becoming a local personality when it comes
to the popular corrective eye surgery known
as LASIK (Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis).
As medical director of the Laser Eye Center
of Silicon Valley and the East Bay, Dr.
Kawesch has corrected the vision of countless
athletes over the years, and still performs
hundreds of LASIK operations weekly to help
Bay Area denizens kiss their glasses and
contact lenses goodbye..."
"When Cindy Duong decided to pitch
her contact lenses and have surgery last
summer to correct her nearsightedness, she
assumed she'd get LASIK. The procedure,
in which a tiny flap is cut across the top
of the eye's clear, domeshaped cornea and
folded back so a laser can reshape the tissue
underneath, is easily the most common type
of laser eye surgery, making up 87 percent
of all procedures last year. But Duong's
doctor said that the cornea in her left
eye was too thin to both cut the flap and
contour her cornea as LASIK (short for laser-assisted
in situ keratomileusis) surgery requires.
Instead, her doctor suggested she consider
a procedure she'd never heard of called
photorefractive keratectomy..."
"After months in the
Iraqi desert fumbling with dusty contacts,
smudged eyeglasses and prescription goggles,
soldiers by the thousands are flocking to
get refractive eye surgery. And the Army's
picking up the tab. "Our work load
and number of patients has gone through
the roof," said Maj. Glenn Sanford
of the two-year-old Warfighter Refractive
Eye Surgery Clinic at Fort Campbell's Blanchfield
Army Hospital. About 26,000 soldiers have
undergone the surgery..."
Both LASIK and LASEK were
safe and effectively treated eyes with high
myopia. Laser in situ keratomileusis provided
superior results in visual predictability
and corneal opacity.
"If you have trouble
reading small print or see flashes of light
while nose-deep in your books during finals
week, then you may soon join over 160 million
Americans that wear corrective lenses. Blurred
vision may be caused by eye conditions known
as refractive errors, which are the leading
vision defects in people in their adolescence
to late 20s - the age range of most college
students. Fortunately, there are techniques
students can employ to avoid eye strain,
along with surgical innovations that can
correct poor eyesight. Age has a great deal
to do with vision because as a person ages
the muscles in their cornea - the front
part of the eye where the lens is located
- become weaker..."
"The Federal Trade Commission today
announced two
complaints and proposed consent orders
with two of the largest purveyors of laser
assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK)
refractive eye surgery services, settling
charges that their
advertisements were not substantiated
by scientific evidence... Under the terms
of the proposed orders with the Commission,
both companies, The Laser Vision Institute,
LLC and its principals, Marco Musa, Max
Musa, and Marc'Andrea Musa (collectively,
LVI) and LCA Vision, Inc., doing business
as LasikPlus (LCA), will be barred from
making such claims in the future unless
the claims can be substantiated..."
"One of the largest national
chains of laser eye surgery clinics pays
sales commissions to at least some of its
"patient counselors," who seek
to collect nonrefundable deposits from customers
before they have been briefed on all possible
risks of the procedure, according to former
employees, customers and company documents..."
"With only a few exceptions,
active duty soldiers,sailors, airmen and
Marines are allowed to have their vision
corrected with laser eye surgery and not
worry about it affecting their careers..."
"The military previously
had prohibited laser eye surgery, in part
because of a fear it could structurally
weaken the eye. However, it changed its
stance following research by the Navy..."
"A Glendora opthamologist
who founded Laser Eye Center (LEC), a group
of eye surgery centers with 12 offices,
was sentenced today to 21 months in federal
prison for his conviction on charges of
defrauding the Medicare program..."
"A Bay Area eye center
has notified 2,700 patients that they could
have been exposed to infectious diseases
because the blades used in laser surgery
may have been routinely reused on other
patients before being discarded..."
"It has come to the attention
of the Board that the LasikPlus Vision Center
in Cincinnati has sent mailings to Ohio
optometrists offering rewards to doctors
who refer patients to them for laser surgery..."
"At the Air Force Academy, 31 cadets
have chosen to go under the laser since
the start of the program last fall. The
U.S. Military Academy, in West Point, N.Y.,
sent its first cadet for eye surgery this
month..."
Attempted degree of spherical correction,
age, optical zone, and postoperative spherical
equivalent were major risk factors of NVCs
throughout the first postoperative year,
whereas pupil size was not. Future wavefront
studies that characterize higher order aberrations
might be helpful for understanding individual
visual aberrations while predicting quality
of vision.
"Using a closed-blade speculum
decentering the flap nasally and applying
downward pressure during the keratectomy
are among the hints for a good start..."
"Although sometimes difficult
to handle, bandage contact lenses have strong
postoperative value. One surgeon offers
an idea on making them easier to use..."
"LASIK for high myopia with
the VISX Star Laser provided satisfactory
refractive and visual results that compare
well with other reports in the literature..."
