Dear Doctors,
I am considering corrective surgery, but am not sure which procedure to look at.
I am considering LASIK or Intacts. I plan to meet with Dr. Matthew Curtis of Poway, CA and also the Shiley Eye Center at the University of California at San Diego.
I am a 35 year old female with a glasses prescription of:
right: sph. -1.75, cyl -0.50, axis 120
left: sph -1.25, cyl -2.75, axis 080

as I am clueless as to the meaning of the numbers, I am searching for information.

Am I a candidate for LASIK or Intacts? If my astigmatism is too much for Intacts, I know they are in FDA trials for astigmatism, and am curious how long before you expect them to be approved.

For my work, I MUST have 20/20 vision (corrected or uncorrected) in both eyes or I am out of a job, this is a concern as well. Which is why I find the Intacts attractive.

So, I am searching complication rates, and they are encouraging for LASIK, but I want the procedure with the best chance of improvement in my eyes and also the least amount of risk of complication.

Thank you very much for your time,
Denise

Whoops,
Guess I misspelled it. I have seen Intacts and Intacs on the web, but the maker's web site spells it Intacs, so, I sit corrected.

Denise

denise-

at the present time, your left eye has too much astigmatism to consider intacs. the investigation for this correction is ongoing, but will likely be at least 18 months before it is available. lasik can handle your correction beautifully, but i am concerned about your needs for 20/20 vision. while most patients- around 85% with your correction achieve 20/20 vision, there are no guarantees. if your job vitally depends on it, then i would wait, and i would certainly not consider a new procedure like intacs until it has been well proven for the astigmatism.

please don't misunderstand, lasik is an excellent procedure and most people are ecstatic about it once they have been treated, but everyone responds slightly differently, and there is the possibility that you may be slightly less than the 20/20 you require.

good luck on your decisions

debra tennen, md

Dear Dr. Tennen,
Thank you for your response, the 20/20 requirement is why I am debating having a procedure done at all. While I realize there is always a risk of complications, of the 15% who do not see 20/20 after surgery, how many can be corrected with lenses or another surgery? I am curious as to the odds of an inability to correct to 20/20 with our without corrective lenses.

A slight chance of complications is probably acceptable to me, but I have not made that determination yet (thank you for your candor in your response, though).

Thanks again,
Denise

I am concerned about your words "MUST" and 20/20. If that's the case, I don't think you're ready for LASIK. While I don't know you and your ophthalmologist needs to talk to you to determine exactly what whether you expectations are reasonable, it sounds to me you are not quite ready for refractive surgery of any kind. 90% of the success of refractive surgery is your mental readiness. Think about it.

Dr. Ofner,
Thank you for your response. I am employed by the FAA as an air traffic controller, and the vision requirements are quite stringent, thus the word MUST, and the reason why I am searching for information on possible complications, instead of having the procedure, from which I would expect good results. It is more due the the FAA medical requirement that I balk than from fear within. I have not had a consult yet, and when I do, this will be a BIG topic of the conversation.

Thank you for your time,
Denise

dear denise,

as you can see, we doctors are very attuned to making sure that patients expectations are realistic. the good news is that in a recent study submitted to the fda for approval of lasik, less than 1% of patients had vision that was uncorrectable to their pre-operative best corrected vision. that means that it may mean wearing glasses, contacts, or even more surgery, but 99% of patients had the same level ofvision they started out with. this info is from the crs study discussed at last months fda panel hearing

hope that helps.

debra tennen, md

Dr. Tennen,
Thank you. Yes, that is exactly what I was looking for. Gives me a good base for an informed decision. As I said, I am not looking for a guarantee, wouldn't that be nice if it could be?
Just exploring all options before making a decision one way or the other. If I were to have LASIK and come out 20/40 but correctable to 20/20 with glasses, that would be OK with me, as generally, I would only need them for work. And from what I have read, I have every expectation that with my level of myopia that I could be that or better barring any complications.

Thank you very much for the information. It is a big decision to have elective work done on your eyes, but man......to not need glasses? OH YEAH!

I do appreciate your time in helping me find information. This is a terrific service that you all provide to us.

Thanks,
Denise