Lasik Eyes Surgery - Anyway to predict complications?

Author

Anyway to predict complications?

themixwizard

2004-12-26, 7:10 pm

Is there anywhere on the Internet or some sort of publication where
people can refer to possibilities of complications for lasik surgery?
For example, how would one know that they would be more prone to
haze/starbursts than say someone else. Any information would be great,
thanks.

C. Gates

2004-12-26, 7:10 pm

themixwizard wrote:
> Is there anywhere on the Internet or some sort of publication where
> people can refer to possibilities of complications for lasik surgery?
> For example, how would one know that they would be more prone to
> haze/starbursts than say someone else. Any information would be great,
> thanks.

Several places can help you get a *GENERAL* idea of what you, with your
own, individual, unique characteristics might expect.

If the FDA or some other governing body required that each surgery
include a simple report that included data for key, critical parameters,
then it would be possible to predict with very high accuracy what you,
personally, could expect. All you'd have to do is fill in a form and
you'd get back a graphical presentation of the likely outcome, including
images of what your vision would be like. (You'd need the results of a
doctor's exam to get some of this data.) And, you could vary certain
input fields (like the surgeon) and see how that would change the model
(outcome).

Tools like regression analysis can reveal patterns that would normally
be invisible and unknowable. Unfortunately, not enough of the right data
is collected and published. Even with all the profits being made in this
business...this sort of data collection is not required, and where it is
collected, it is kept private.

Most surgeons have a very good idea of what a candidates odds will be,
but...for some...a patient's wellfare is not always a top priority.

rebeccaNO_SPAM@lasermyeye.org

2004-12-26, 7:10 pm

themixwizard wrote:
> Is there anywhere on the Internet or some sort of publication where
> people can refer to possibilities of complications for lasik surgery?
> For example, how would one know that they would be more prone to
> haze/starbursts than say someone else. Any information would be
great,
> thanks.

Our website is in the middle of an upgrade so a lot of our material is
not presently available.

A few notes in the meantime for what they are worth:

I wrote about some of the "Hot Buttons" at
http://www.lasermyeye.org/keratosco...a17jun2004.html

With respect to starbursts, haloes, etc (often called Night Vision
Disturbance these days in medical circles), they are more likely to
happen:

1. To people with large dark-adapted pupils (i.e. 7mm or greater)
and/or dark-adapted pupils which are larger than the area treated by
the laser.

2. To people with higher prescriptions or more unusual/challenging
prescription. The higher the prescription, the higher the likelihood of
NVD.

Note also that:
- It is dangerous to rely on reports by other patients. Tolerance of
NVD or other vision quality defects varies among patients to an
astonishing degree. What one patient considers a minor annoyance,
another considers intolerable or debilitating.
- I consider the most serious risk in this area to be the
mismeasurement of the dark-adapted pupil; pupil size in the dark is
frequently under-measured. Please see the May and June 2003 articles by
The Lone Dog at
http://www.lasermyeye.org/keratosco.../archives.html.
- These are NOT by any means the only causes of NVD; they are simply
some key risk areas which can be identified beforehand. Poor laser
performance resulting in too small an optical zone, or an irregular
optical zone, or a poorly centred optical zone, will accomplish it very
nicely as well. There are other complications such as flap
complications which may cause or exacerbate it too.

rebeccaNO_SPAM@lasermyeye.org

2004-12-26, 7:10 pm

> Our website is in the middle of an upgrade so a lot of our material
is
> not presently available.
Forgot to give the URL - sorry!

Rebecca Petris
www.lasermyeye.org

Glenn - USAEyes.org

2004-12-26, 10:07 pm

You and your eyes are unique. You may be more prone to one
complication than another and some won't even apply, but which and how
much is only going to be determined by a competent surgeon. Your
number one source will be a doctor who has evaluated you personally.

To find a good doctor, we suggest you consider a CRSQA Certified
Refractive Surgeon (http://www.usaeyes.org/surgeons/locate.htm) and/or
our 50 Tough Questions For Your Doctor at
http://www.usaeyes.org/faq/tough_questions.htm to help evaluate any
refractive surgeon.

You need to be an educated patient and general information is
available through may sources including our website (www.USAEyes.org),
the FDA (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/lasik/updates.htm), and others.

After you have been evaluated, your doctor may bring up specific
concerns. With that knowledge, you could go back to our website and
look up that particular subject, post those concerns here for more
opinions, or use our organization's Ask An Expert
(http://www.usaeyes.org/faq/ask_lasik_expert.html) service for a
researched reply.

Glenn Hagele
Executive Director
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance

Email to glenn dot hagele at usaeyes dot org

http://www.USAEyes.org
http://www.ComplicatedEyes.org

I am not a doctor.