I’m considering Lasik for myself in the not-so-distant future and though I’ve seen some numbers about unsatisfactory results and such, I want to know the percentage of people who go in and get out with worse vision that they had before (up and including blindness).
Does anyone have any numbers?
Also, and this is a long shot, I’m thinking of using the Rand Eye institute (south florida). Has anyone used their services before or know anything about their standing in this region?
I don’t have good numbers, but of the 6 people I know that had it done, 2 were sub-optimal (with one being what I would consider a failure)
Ah, I should probably mention that they use the “VISX Star 4-WaveScan System” and that the custom procedure would cost me $5600 for both eyes.
Awaiting your comments with impatience,
/gozu
Off the top of my head, I can think of 17 people that have had the surgery. Each one was successful. Even still, I wouldn’t do it. It’s my eyes. If anything, I would spend the extra money and do one eye at a time. Then again, I don’t need glasses so I can’t fully appreciate the problem.
By the way, until this thread I always saw Bobotheoptimist as “Bobtheoptometrist”. I thought, how could an optometrist only know 6 people who have had Lasik surgery?
I know 4 people who have had it. My ex wife still has to wear glasses. One guy had it twice and can no longer drive at night and still needs glasses. The otehr two think it’s great. One of them got his done cheap because his sister works for a laser surgery. She insists the failure rate now is extremely low.
This is my concern. I’ve been wearing contacts for about 15 years and it’s basically part of my daily routine. When I compare the money spent per year vs the cost of Lasik, it would pay off in approx 20 years or so. Hard to justify from a monetary stand point and with the risks of failure being so dire, I have a hard time convincing myself it’s worthwhile.
I know about a half dozen people in the last couple of years. I don’t know how bad their eyes were prior to the procedure or how much better the lasers have become since 2005. But none have had any problems.
I am still not having it done. I made the mistake of watching one of those “how it’s done” shows on TLC or something. I still can’t think about it without getting queasy.
FWIW, I’d do it again in a second. I got a hell of a good deal - my eyes were done by the most experienced (and probably most expensive) guy in Denver at the time. If I had to pay for it I don’t think I would until I could afford the best in the biz.
Know what you’re getting into first - research research research.
If you want data rather than anecdotes, check the FDA’s website. In order for equipment to be approved it has to be tested, and for each system the FDA has published success rates from the clinical trials.
For the system you mentioned (Star S4 & WaveScan WaveFront System), they have four separate studies for different types of vision problems. Checking the first one, “Myopia up to -6.0D with or without astigmatism up to -3.0D”, they report that 97.7% of patients have 20/20 vision after 12 months. Read the reports tourself for more details about the kinds of complications that did occur in the other 2.3%, or other issues that you might want to be aware of. And if your vision problem is different, you’d need to check a different report.
The FDA’s site is pretty extensive, and provides links to other resources that might be helpful.
It is very operator-dependent so broad statistics will not be useful.
In excellent hands it is safe and effective, in part because excellent hands screen carefully and do not take all comers. As an example, the thickness of the cornea, and underlying conditions can markedly affect outcome.
A few things to keep in mind: lasik for myopia as it is usually done changes the refractive index of your cornea. As you age the eye’s ability to adjust for this lessens. As a consequence you may need reading glasses if you’ve had lasik, where you may not have needed them absent lasik. Furthermore, UV protection for all is a good idea, and splash protection for many is a good idea. Glasses give you both (to some extent). I think lasik is way overrated as means to “get rid of your glasses.”
My own decision was to only get one eye corrected with lasik. What this does is free you from the tyranny of requiring eye glasses. If I lose the specs, I can still drive home or pick out a splinter. I suppose there was also only half the worry. 
I still wear glasses because I prefer corrected binocular vision, but I know some people whose brains are perfectly content seeing distance with one eye and close-up with the other.
I had the luxury of “knowing” who was good b/c of my membership in the physician club, but lasik requires both operator and device, so at the least make sure you’ve vetted out both. It has become such a commodity it’s a bit nerve-racking to wonder who is doing it.
I haven’t looked up the failure and success rates. I don’t how “failure” and “success” are defined by the FDA or anyone else who might compile statistics on failure rates of laser keratotomies.
Here’s what I do know: even though my prescription is stable, and I would ordinarily be considered a good candidate for the surgery, my optometrist recommended that I not get Lasik.
She said that the changes to the cornea could reduce contrast vision. For some people, that isn’t an issue. But if you use light microscopes, or have to drive through fog, that could be a real problem. She also told me that some people have problems with depth perception after surgery. Having my contrast vision or depth perception messed with would be disastrous for me. I decided to stick with the glasses.
I don’t know how important contrast vision or depth perception are to you, or how much risk to them you’re willing to tolerate, so YMMV.
Every year, as equipment improves, and opportunities to learn from experience increase, the odds of things going wrong with an experienced and registered professional who isn’t offering unrealistically cheap services, lessen.
More recent anecdotes count for more than older ones.
I’ll just wait and have cyborg eyes installed.
I had LASIK done about a year and a half ago. I’m pretty happy with the result. The side effects I was worried about were poor night vision, halos, and sub-standard corrected vision. But I came out seeing better than I ever have in my life - 20/20 in one eye, 20/15 in the other, 20/15 both. My night vision seems as good as ever - actually better because my old thick glasses caused reflections and absorbed something like 5% of the light.
However, I’ve had one main persistent side effect: dry eyes. It doesn’t bother me through the day at all, but at night and in the morning I have to put drops in my eyes. Sometimes when I wake up my eyes are painfully dry and I have to put drops in them right away. Then they’re fine.
I also had to get reading glasses. I had awesome near vision before. I could see extremely fine details up close. After the LASIK, my near vision was worse - not horrible, but I was getting eyestrain trying to read fine print, and tiny labels were hard to read. A pair of $20 reading glasses over the counter fixed that problem, and I only wear them very occasionally.
When they talk about LASIK successes, notice that it’s always in terms of whether you achieved good uncorrected vision. That’s important, but it’s not the only measure of failure. Some people see halos around light sources forever. Some have markedly worse night vision. Some may have dry eyes or other unpleasant side-effects. All would be scored a ‘success’ if judged only by their best visual acuity.
But I do love being able to see so well. Even after a year and a half, sometimes I’ll look out a window or be walking outdoors when suddenly I’ll get a sensation like I’m looking at a high-definition world. I used to get that with a new prescription for my glasses - first stepping outside with the new prescription would feel like the world just lifted its veil. Then the sensation would go away as my eyes slowly drifted away from my current prescription. But now it happens regularly, and I can just stop and enjoy what I’m looking at. A big difference from 40 years of staring at the world through a thick layer of glass or plastic.
Hmm, The truth is I am a bit worried about dry eyes and other side effects. Are there any alternative procedures with people who have both myopia AND astigmatism?
I was evaluated for it and refused. I was told the worse your eyesight is in the first place, the more likely you can end up with problems, and my eyesight is fairly shocking unfortunately.
So its not as simple a case of success/failure, you also need to know what the odds are with your particular kind of eye problems.
Otara
I’ve known 5 people who have had it done. No serious problems, but nothing I’d want to live with - all of them have reduced night vision, 3 of them have minor but distracting haloes around everything they see, two have recurring headaches that weren’t present before, two still require corrective lenses, and one had to have an eye done twice. That’s a lot of baggage for what is, for most people, cosmetic surgery.
Jackknifed Juggernaut sums up my feelings succinctly - it sounds nice, but I still won’t do it, because it’s my eyes.
I might change my mind if/when it becomes safe and reliable enough that most major health insurance companies will cover it without even blinking. (Pun not intended.)
The funny thing is, the one guy I knew who flew to Mexico to have radial keratotomy done in the mid 90s, made no complaints. (Though whether this is because he was pleased with the results, or because of buyer’s remorse, I don’t know.)
I had Lasik in 2001, and the only side effect that still bothers me now is fuzzy vision in low-light conditions. I understand that is caused when your pupils dilate larger than the area corrected by the surgery. That’s why they measure your pupils to see if you are a candidate for the surgery.
If I had to drive at night a lot, it might be irritating. But I don’t, and I’m still extremely pleased that I had the surgery. I do see halos around lights at night, but I have always seen halos with both glasses and contacts. It didn’t get any worse.
I was bothered by dry eyes for the first year, but not any more.
I work at a computer all day, and I read a lot, and the surgery didn’t interfere with those activities at all.
Although I don’t need it I also have a few questions about this kind of surgery.
I too know people who had great results, and some less than wonderful.
But my question is about the long term effects. Is it too early to know what will happen to people who have had this surgery as they reach say, 80 or 90 yrs of age.
I wonder the same thing about procedures such as weight loss surgery and procedures like face lifts and botox. Do we really know what effects these things will produce 20, 30 years later?
Well, I had both eyes done about 8 years ago. I would say that the immediate results were amazing. Once my corneas were reshaped, they don’t change back, no infections, no dry eye, nor anything like that. It was very similar to Sam Stone’s wonderful experience a few posts up.
However, prescription drift will still occur, and my vision has steadily gotten more near sighted. I may get a pair of glasses for night time driving and when it gets bad enough, I’ll probably be looking to get my eyes re-Lasik’d. I was told by my eye doctor that as people get much older (60 years +), their eyes actually become steadily more far sighted.
You can probably only get a finite number of procedures done to your corneas, depending on how thick they are (mine are pretty thick). It pays to plan ahead.