Archive for September, 2007

Before considering Lasik eye surgery there are at least four questions you should ask before going under the laser.

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A 40 year old male went for a LASIK consultation and was told that he would be a great candidate for the procedure. He had complained prior to surgery that he had very dry eyes and often woke up with painful eyes, but the surgeon told him that he would still do well with the procedure.

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In December 1995, Christine Fulmer decided to receive one of Lancaster County’s first-ever laser-corrective eye surgeries.  It was a momentous one. After all, the procedure had received federal approval only a handful of weeks previous.”I was a little nervous at the time, but now, 10 years down the road, I would have the procedure done again in a minute,” Fulmer said.

“After I got the surgery, there was a small discomfort, something like having a cinder in my eye,” she said. “But I used medicated drops to calm the inflammation … and as soon as I could see again, there was a marked difference.”

First pioneered in Boston at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in the mid-1990’s, just 10 years later the procedure has now become almost commonplace, with celebrities like Tiger Woods, Nicole Kidman and even former “Wonder Woman” Linda Carter benefiting from the treatment.

When the procedure first came on the scene in the mid-1990’s, said Dr. Frank Manning with Manning & Rommel Associates in Lancaster, doctors removed the skin of the cornea and used a laser to shape the front part of the eye that covers the iris and pupil in a procedure called excimer laser photo-refractive keratectomy, or PRK.

Today, he said, lasers can be used to simply cut a small flap in the cornea and shape it using highly sensitive beams of light.

“In the beginning doctors could only work with an early-generation laser. They could only do one eye at a time, and then patch up the eye after each procedure,” Manning said. “Now, we can use highly-sensitive equipment to ‘map’ the eye and to guide the laser during treatment, and we also use more powerful lasers.”

The results, Manning said, produce fewer side effects with highly improved vision, usually costing patients, on average, between $2000 and $2,500 per eye.

For Dr. Kerry Givens, a laser vision correction specialist at Campus Eye Center in Lancaster, people thinking about getting the surgery should keep in mind that the procedure isn’t for everyone, such as those with excessively thin corneas, or who have been diagnosed with connective tissue diseases.

“Age is also always a consideration. In Europe, I know that some LASIK specialists will treat people at an extraordinarily young age, but personally, 21 is as young as I’ll go. Up until then, the eye is often still growing,” Givens said.

As for people over 65, he said, health issues like glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration can rob patients of the benefits of the laser correction.

Givens said there are many reasons why people might decide to get the procedure done: some because they are tired of the hassles associated with contact lenses and others because they love sports that make wearing glasses impossible, such as swimming or kickboxing.

“Of course, some people point out that even though I’m a laser vision correction specialist, I myself wear glasses. One reason is because I have a pretty large amount of astigmatism, which is harder to correct perfectly with current LASIK technology, but still easy to correct with glasses,” Givens said.

To perform his job, he said, he needs “perfect vision acuity” to do eye microsurgery on patients.

“If I had LASIK done on myself, there’s a possibility that I could end up with even a little less sharpness than what my glasses provide right now,” Givens said. “It would hamper my ability to do surgery confidently.”

Patients, he said, often comment on why a laser vision correction specialist is wearing glasses, but Givens said that by discussing his own choice on the issue he’s able to help patients understand that laser vision correction surgery is not for everyone.

“Simply wearing glasses or contacts doesn’t necessarily make you a good candidate (for this procedure),” he said. “Anyone thinking about getting the treatment should discuss the pros and cons of the decision at length with their eye doctor, plus be prepared to go through extensive presurgical screening.”

Patients, Manning said, need to remember the procedure is surgery, so getting it done is not “100 percent safe”.

“There’s about a one in 5,000 risk of infection, but by and large patients who decide to get this surgery are happy with the results,” he said. “People tell me that, once they’ve had the surgery done, they’re so grateful for the little things, such as being able to see when they get up in the middle of the night.”

Ten years after the procedure was approved, Manning said, LASIK eye surgery has become “an acceptable mainline alternative” to glasses. “A decade later, the procedure is stable without a lot of long-term adverse consequences for the eye.”

For Fulmer, the reason she decided to have the surgery in the mid-1990’s was for her work, when she was a supervisor with RR Donnelley in Lancaster.

“I had to be able to read fine print in catalogues and work up pricing, as well as handle special orders,” said Fulmer, who is now a grandmother employed by Wolf Furniture in Lancaster.

“Not having glasses back then was a huge advantage in my personal and private life, and now I have friends who are stuck walking around with glasses hanging down around their necks … and frankly, I think that’s ridiculous.”

“I’m so glad that having the surgery . .. freed me from having to deal with that,” she said.

Source: Lancaster Online

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