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A closer look at whose eyes fare badly with Lasik
A decade after Lasik eye surgery hit the market, patients left with fuzzy instead of clear vision are airing their grievances before US health officials.
- AP
- Published: 00:35 April 26, 2008
Washington: A decade after Lasik eye surgery hit the market, patients left with fuzzy instead of clear vision are airing their grievances before US health officials.
Make no mistake: Most Lasik recipients do walk away with crisper vision, some better than 20/20.
But not everyone's a good candidate, and an unlucky few do suffer life-changing side effects: poor vision, painful dry eyes, glare or problems seeing at night.
How big are the risks? The Food and Drug Administration thinks about 5 per cent of patients are dissatisfied with Lasik. How many struggle daily with side effects? How many are just unhappy that they couldn't completely ditch their glasses? The range of effects on patients' quality of life is a big unknown.
Public hearing
So with a public hearing yesterday, the FDA is beginning a new effort to determine if warnings about Lasik's risks are appropriate. The agency also is pairing with eye surgeons for a major study expected to enrol hundreds of Lasik patients to better understand who has bad outcomes and exactly what their complaints are.
"Clearly there is a group who are not satisfied and do not get the kind of results they expect," FDA medical device chief Dr Daniel Schultz said. The study should "help us predict who those patients might be before they have the procedure".
About 7.6 million Americans have undergone some form of laser vision correction, including the $2,000-per-eye Lasik. Lasik is quick and, if no problems occur, painless: Doctors cut a flap in the cornea - the clear covering of the eye - aim a laser underneath it and zap to reshape the cornea for sharper sight.
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