Wavefront technology has arrived in North America. Check www.customwavefrontinfo.com

richard,
i am not sure who you are, or if you are actually in the "eye industry", and although i clearly support the patient's right and duty to find out all they can before making this important decision, i find your postings to be more like advertisements.

only twenty patients in the world have been treated with wavefront technology, and while the results are promising, there are many tweaks that need to be worked out. have you had it done? would you have it done next week?

most ophthalmologists who perform this surgery are eagerly anticipating a procedure which will give us even greater accuracy than that we have enjoyed with our broad beam and now scanning spot lasers, but for the time being, i would not recommend wavefront technology.

debra tennen, md

The purpose of the posting is to make patients that have problems that cannot be addressed by existing technologies available in the U.S. aware of a possible solution. The problem seems to lie with FDA approval of new technology. I would hope that surgeons would want to known what technologies are available and not take offense to their existing practice.

Richard,

I see you skirted Dr. Tennen's questions: Are you affiliated with the eye industry? Would you subject your eyes to this very new and unproven technology? Your tacitness is revealing, and calls into question your motives. Are you merely trying to help others as you suggest?

Those of us who have been damaged by refractive surgery are not helped by incomplete information from individuals who are less than forthright in stating their affiliations. Too many people have been "led down the garden path" into these risky surgeries through incomplete or inaccurate information, only to have unexpected and tragic outcomes. Many of us formerly trusting individuals are now indignant and cynical towards the laser companies and "laser surgery mills", and rightly so.

-Red

I've been living with a LASIK-induced irregular astigmatism in one eye for over a year (It is a paracentral island just inside the optical zone) Should I wait for wavefront? Is there anything I can do now? I don't mind travelling anywhere as long as I get fixed by the best.

Henry

i would wait for the wavefront technology- it may have something to offer you, but really at this stage, no one is quite sure of which measurements to use in programming the laser, and whether the vision obtained is useful in all situations- e.g. night driving, dim light conditions, etc.

hang in there- the hottest area of research is not correcting nearsightedness, we already do a great job of that- but in correcting problems some of us may have created along the way. soon there will be something to offer you.

good luck

debra tennen, md

I love your promising statement that future development is not in correcting near-sightedness but in correcting some of the problems resulting from original surgery. My question, how do we know who and where to go for our particular problems? The more I research, the more conflicting information I get. Especially among the different refractive surgeons I've interviewed. How do we decide when, where, and in whom we trust (besides God!)
I know this cannot be answered simply...

Wavefront guided refractive surgery has been a hot topic on many bulletin boards and in various magazines like eyeworld ect. I have followed this debate from the begining and most Dr's and investigaters working with wave front seem to have come to the conclusion that wavefront analysis is affected by the same things that affect light entering your eye. Problem eye's analyzed with wave front so far just show a good sized blank spot on the wavefront map in the problem area making the analysis useless. Laser systems capable of topolink have been fairly successful and at this time look like your best bet for correcting problem eye's in the near future. Asclepion-meditec has produced the best wavefront system I know of to date and presented the clinical results of the first 19 people treated to the Dr's at the latest wavefront conference in Boston.The people treated had pretty typical stats between -1.75 and -7 and from .25 - 2 diopters of astigmatism. 95% of the people treated had better than 20/20 vision and the lowest had 20/20. The results were 5 people 20/16 8 people 20/12.5 3 people 20/10 1 person 20/8 and 1 person 20/6. The system computers combine topolink information and wavefront analysis information and generate the treatment. This system gives much better results than any to date and should be interesting to follow when it hits the market this fall.