Great Laser Eye Surgery Hunt

Paul_Herring · 29 September 2005 at 9:13AM

rictic wrote:

I read somewhere in the last 2 weeks that there are now contact lenses that you can wear whilst you are asleep. The lenses reshape the eye giving you 20/20 vision for the duration of the day.
Got to be better than having your eyes hacked at.

Google: corneal reshaping
Google UK: Orthokeratology

gchapman · 29 September 2005 at 9:13AM

I wear contacts but they aren't that great for your eye I've heard..... they don't let enough oxygen get to the surface of your eye which is why you should only wear them during a specific time period.... I can't imagine what the overnight lenses must do? I know they are probably more permeable letting more air through but surely it can't be that good? I don't know... I guess your eyes still dry out after a while?

Maureen_Michaels · 30 September 2005 at 4:35PM

I had PRK on one of my eyes around 10 years ago and ended up having four operations. The operation was done at a hospital with an excellent reputation. Not many people know that as many as 25% of people have problems after eye surgery and that includes Lasex. One of the side effects can be night blindness and there are one or two states in America who are trying to bring out a law that if you have laser treatment on your eyes you should have a night blindness test. Often these treatment centres don't point out all the obstacles.

One side effect that I know of is a woman who had her eyes operated on with Lasex and they were perfect for a week. After that she started seeing double. She was a financial adviser and her job entailed driving on the motorway. She was simply told that her brain couldn't adjust. Think very carefully before having the surgery.

acmj · 2 October 2005 at 10:41AM

Went to Ultralase in Cardiff this week with my partner and was not impressed. Guess what! We both qualified for the most expensive treatment @ £1,495 per eye. No explanation was given as to the benefits of cheaper treatments and when I did ask I got a mumbled 'yes you could have the cheaper treatments'. It all came across as a bit of double glazing sales pitch.

Not impressed will not use.

cookiemonster25 · 2 October 2005 at 10:59AM

may have already been posted but dont have time to read all the posts but do beware with laser surgery..remember this is still early days has only realy been going for a few years, eye sight is so precious i personaly will wait a few yeras to see what else comes along and what improvments will be made...a friend of mine had it done, says it was fantastic until he came to drive at night, he has now got blurred vision and finds it very difficult to focus on things...so please be wary

sorry if this is reapeatiing what others have said

Jeff121 · 3 October 2005 at 2:40AM

Having been a patient at the Glasgow eye clinic at Gartnaval Hospital recently treated for an eye infection I took the opportunity to discus Laser corrective eye surgery with the doctor who treated my eye infection. Told her I hate wearing glasses and as its almost 2 years since I had my eyes tested etc and its about time to buy new specs/lenses I was considering Laser corrective eye surgery. The doc was very informative about the procedure and made me aware of the irreversible damage that can be caused if the surgery is not successful, and to believe her that lots of the operations are not a 100% success. There's no turning back once you have the operation, for all that I would love to ditch my specs I at present wouldn't take the chance, better to be able to see with the specs than not at all. The Laser Eye Clinics cannot give you a 100% guarantee that this surgery will be a success and for all that yours or my chance against failure might be reasonable odds I don't think that your sight is worth the gamble.

spirit · 3 October 2005 at 6:52PM

Phew, what a lot of negativity there is on this thread at the moment. I'd like someone to find me something, anything that does have 100% success rate in life? You have to consider why you want this type of surgery and see if there is an alternative - sure it probably isn't for everyone.

I had it done this Saturday and my initial response is that it was worth it. I shall know more in a week or so when my vision has settled down, but in my own experience the doctors, surgeons and staff at the clinic I went to made me fully aware of the options, possible side effects and what to expect.

I had researched this on the internet, spoke to people who had had it done and asked lots of questions at my consultation. I was not talked into having more expensive surgery, I had previously decided on epi lasek and that's precisely what I had done.

My advice would be to shop around, if you really would like it done, then just because you've had a bad experience at one clinic - you can't tar all clinics with the same brush.

wilks2005 · 3 October 2005 at 7:20PM

I agree with you Chris. I had mine done with Optipax 5 weeks ago and my vision is now 20/20. My personal experience is a good one so far, I had the epi-lasik surgery which cost £860 altogether.

As Chris says make yourself aware of what you are getting into. It is however a life changing operation.

storri · 6 October 2005 at 5:41PM

Rosie123 wrote:

I had a consultation at Accuvision - the place that claims to treat people other clinics can't. They told me I had thinnish corneas but should get a favourable outcome. I then went to Centre for Sight and saw a top consultant who told me that my corneas were extremely thin and to have laser surgery would be extremely risky - I could risk developing a very serious eye condition. So be warned maybe Accuvision treat people that other clincs won't - not can't!
...

I have to comment and disagree here - one of the reasons that Accuvision could/can treat thinner corneas is that not all lasers are the exactly the same. The Accuvision laser is/was (i was treated a couple of years ago) a more precise laser than some other clinics had available and therefore could reshape the cornea to what was needed with less "burn-depth" for want of a better word.

I was shown details of the different laser profiles and how the burn patterns overlap to achieve the end result. If you can imagine narrow sine wave shapes overlapping (accuvision laser) compared to wider sine waves overlapping (some other clinics) to create an even surface you'll understand what I mean. Maybe....

johnfthetraveller · 7 October 2005 at 12:39PM

Paul_Herring wrote:

I note that in the rest of your long post, you never said what complications you yourself had, instead preferring to quote other people?

Paul, I could quote chapter and verse on what my complications were, but I wanted to stress the general dangers, and not sound like I was just grouchy 'cos I've had problems.

I suffer from Recurrent Corneal Erosion, which came on immediately following PTK surgery. If you've ever had a paper cut in the eye, that is what an eposode of RCE feels like, with migraines thrown in for good measure, and it happens once every 2 or 3 weeks. The only think I can do is lie down with my eyes closed until it gets better, which can be anything between 4 hours and 2 1/2 days. Try explaining that in a job interview, or why you travelled from the UK to Australia to attend a conference, but couldn't actually go on the day because you had to lie down.

But the point is that there are many possible complications, and the operation is constantly changing. Hopefully the changes are improvements, but that is the point - there are problems with the current methods.

For example I've not heard anyone discuss that at around 45+ most people develop presbyopia (you need reading glasses). Being short sighted actually delays the onset of presbyopia, so short sighted people who have the operation will BRING FORWARD (by years) the day they need reading glasses! I know this from a personal perspective. I had the operation and within a year I needed reading glasses! Bet you don't see that in large print on the front page of the brochure.

People who can't drive at night because of glare. If your cornea is to thin (as a small percentage of people in the population are) the operation can cause an irreversible weakness in the cornea. I bet that if everyone who was just about to have the operation asked if they'd been tested for a thin cornea (the test takes about 2 minutes, using non-specialist equipment), the vast majority of replies would be that the test had not been done.

I may not remember the exact details, but a medic with no opthalmological experience is allowed to do the operation after a few weeks training course.

I could go on. I feel strongly about this because over the years I've seen that in the power pull between commercial forces and corporate caution, it is usually only the threat of legal action that will temper the comercial force. And I am constantly amazed at the degree of blind trust that most people have with someone with a medical coat on.

There are people who have such severe eyesight problems that they cannot be corrected by glasses. For those I would agree that the operation may be suitable, but contact lens technology has improved so much over recent times, you would be foolish (hey, that's me I guess) to have the laser operation.

Great Laser Eye Surgery Hunt

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