Hello doctors and everyone,

I had lasik surgery on 11/12/99. From 1st day post-op to one week, my vision was 20/15, and my eyes were more inflammed than normal and I was taking pred forte. In between then and now, my peripheal vision on my left is blurry and my right eye vision is blurry. (If I concentrate on the letters long enough my doctor says I can still see 20/20). Last week the doctor said I was overcorrected on my right eye. I have an appointment on 12/10/99, and will get all my "numbers" for my eyes to find out exactly how overcorrected I am. It is possible that after 3 months, I might need an enhancement, if my right eye does not regress. My question is: When LASIK is done on nearsighted patients like myself, the surface of the cornea is removed, if it is removed too much (causing farsightedness)..how is that corrected...you can't possibly "add" to the cornea??? How is an enhancement done exactly in this situation?? Also, how can you tell patients see 20/20 if you allow them to concentrate on the letters for a long period of time...I think that you should "see" the line that you can read without concentrating and focusing extra hard and that should be your vision. Is that why "statistics" say that patients have good outcomes after LASIK because the doctors let them sit there until they can read the 20/20 line?

Excellent questions. Enhancements can be done for both under-corrections and overcorrections. For undercorrections, we just lift the flap and add a little more laser. For over-correction, we lift the flap, but then we place a hyperopic correction. As you may know, LASIK can be done on people who are near-sighted or far-sighted. So the same type of treatment is given to a patient who is far-sighted (to steepen the cornea) and to a patient who is over-corrected (to steepen the cornea).

I hope this is helpful

Bill Trattler, MD
Miami, FL