Eye Surgery: Myths and Legends?

Dei · Jul 20, 2006

Being severely short-sighted (about -6.5 in each eye for those who know about such things) I've long been considering laser eye surgery as a way of lessening my reliance of glasses and contact lenses. I've asked my regular optician and he has mentioned that such a thing is best done on a pair of eyes that have remained at a steady prescription for several years and where the owner has finished growing.

In my case I'm twenty and my eyes have been stable for going on two years so I have been considering eye surgery quite seriously of late. The thing is you hear so many stories about it causing blindness or things going wrong and I'm not entirely certain that I want to trust the answers to these queries to a Lasik consultant. So instead I turn to the mass of information and fact that is the ENworld forums.

What have been your experiences of eye surgery? Are there any long term effects? Is it still too early for me to be considering this as an option? I would even be interested to hear if there are any other treatments available. I know there are probably a lot of people out there who are curious about the same thing so thanks in advance.

GlassJaw · Jul 20, 2006

LASIK is awesome. I highly recommend it. I had it done about 2 years ago. It really changes your life.

The best advice I can give is to get recommendations for a LASIK surgeon from your doctor. Even then, do some research. Find out how long the surgeon has been performing the procedure.

The chance of going blind is almost nil. If you are reading about LASIK online, you are going to of course hear the extreme worst case scenarios. And most of those cases are most likely people that shouldn't have had it done in the first place.

If you find a doctor that has refused patients, there's a good chance he knows what he's doing.

Atavar · Jul 20, 2006

My Experience

I had LASIK surgery done at the end of April, and I now have better than perfect vision (20:15). The surgeon I used is extremely qualified; if I remember my numbers correctly he performs over 2000 surgeries per year and has been in the field for 20+ years. So, my first piece of advice is to research any doctor you have in mind: Is he or she board certified, how many procedures have they done/do they do, etc.

Another important factor is the equipment they use. In my case, the doctor used an all-laser procedure--no scalpels (sp?) of any kind were used, which greatly reduces the risk of complications. Also, the laser used to reshape the corneas was controlled precisely by a computer, although I think that's true for most cases now.

Also, there are different kinds of procedures. I don't know how often they are used anymore. Like, there was a time where the surgeon reshaped the surface of your cornea. For me, a laser was used to cut a flap at the top of my cornea, the flap was pulled back, another laser was used to reshape the cornea under the flap, and the flap was put back in place and naturally adheared without the need for stitches. Some surgeons use a scalpel rather than a laser for the initial incision.

A big thing for me was following EXACTLY what my doctor told me (eye drops, etc.) so as to prepare for the procedure and to prevent complications.

Keep in mind I am just a civilian, not a health care professional, so the above is all my opinion and experience. If you like, I can e-mail you a link to the web site of my LASIK eye surgeon. Even if you live too far away to use him, his site has a lot of great information, including what to look for in a surgeon, what makes people good and bad candidates, etc. You can reach me at clakerley at ya hoo dot com

Feel free to ask me any further questions on here as well. I check the site a couple of times per day.

Later,

Atavar

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"The naked woman's body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man."

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 21, 2006

I know 3 people who have had the procedure. 2 of them have excellent eyesight, but one is now nearly blind and has had to close a medical practice. Essentially, its cost that person their liveleyhood.

Personally, anything more than 7" from my eyes is blurry, but I'll never have the surgery unless a doctor tells me its a necessity. I just don't see the point in thousands of dollars of surgery when that will pay for years of glasses that have NO risk.

Make no mistake- this is surgery and thus, things could go wrong. The risk of mistake is small, but the consequences of a mistake are HUGE.

Make sure you get at least one second opinion to ensure that you're a good candidate for the surgery. You might want to ask people you know personally what they think. Ask other doctors you know, like your primary care physician, as to their opinion of whom they'd go to for the surgery, if anyone.

GlassJaw · Jul 21, 2006

Dannyalcatraz said:
I know 3 people who have had the procedure. 2 of them have excellent eyesight, but one is now nearly blind and has had to close a medical practice. Essentially, its cost that person their liveleyhood.

So by your calculations, the failure rate is 33% then right? My next question would be why did it go wrong? What was this person's past medical history? Why did they decide to have it done in the first place? My guess is there is more info than we are getting.

Assuming you are a valid candidate for the procedure and you go to a qualified surgeon, the chances for something to wrong, even just slightly, is incredibly small.

Dei · Jul 21, 2006

GlassJaw said:
So by your calculations, the failure rate is 33% then right?

I don't think that's quite what he meant, he was just demonstrating that there is perhaps some truth to the rumours. All of the questions you raised were valid though and seem to stack with what I've heard from others. As long as you're careful in getting yourself checked out before and after and use a qualified and experienced clinic the treatment is fine seems to be the general concensus.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts guys. Anyone else want to contribute?

Rodrigo Istalindir · Jul 21, 2006

The Wikipedia entry on Lasik has some nice links to studies on complication rates, etc.

loki44 · Jul 21, 2006

Dei said:
Thanks a lot for your thoughts guys. Anyone else want to contribute?

I've been thinking about getting it done for a couple of years now. Still plan to. I know several people who have had successful eye surgeries. Two still need reading glasses, and one had to go back once or twice to have it readjusted or something. No major problems though. They were all in their 40's when they had it done which may account for the reading glasses. They all have recommended making sure that your surgeon has an outstanding track record.

Bobitron · Jul 21, 2006

I had two corneal transplants done, so I'm well qualified to talk about eye surgery for purely medical reasons. Neither of my surgeries were elective, though, and I'm in no way confident that the discomfort or risk is similar.

Here's my thoughts, though. If I could do it, I would. My eye isn't in a condition to allow the Lasik procedure at this point, but I certainly would if I could. If you are really concerned about the risks, go over it with an opthalmologist- preferably not the one who does the procedure.

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 22, 2006

So by your calculations, the failure rate is 33% then right?

No, I agree with the published failure rates. My point was more along the lines of make sure you need to fully understand not only the failure rate, but the failure implications.

If the surgery goes wrong, it doesn't neccessarily mean you go back to wearing glasses, or your prescription is just not as good as you expect- it could mean trading in your glasses for a seeing-eye dog and a white cane.

To me, the implications of failure are great enough that I will never get this surgery done as an elective procedure- I'm fine with glasses.

Since I have made such a decision, I haven't really done any research into the statistical breakdown of the nature of the failures of such surgeries- how many failures are minor vs major, how many of those failures are correctible by further surgeries, what % of failures result in permanent blindness, etc. If someone is seriously considering this surgery, they really should know things like that.

My next question would be why did it go wrong? What was this person's past medical history? Why did they decide to have it done in the first place? My guess is there is more info than we are getting.

The surgery was perfomed by a fully qualified surgeon, but the reasons for the failure are, at this time, the subject of a huge lawsuit, so details are hard to come by.

Assuming you are a valid candidate for the procedure and you go to a qualified surgeon, the chances for something to wrong, even just slightly, is incredibly small.

Agreed...and knowing your surgeon's history & track record with the procedure and getting a second opinion go a long way towards ensuring that you ARE a valid candidate for the procedure with the attendant minimal risks.