My sister and I both have high Myopia (-9 to -11 diopters) with some astigmatism. We've both been considering Lasik correction.

She had the procedure done last week and expected to walk out of the clinic with near perfect vision.

Instead, she's dealing with extreme haziness, and is unable to see clearly even with the soft lenses her surgeon prescribed.

Doctors: What type of information do physicians typically give their patients with high Myopia re. results and complications?

Patients: For those who've had to deal with weeks of haze and unpredictible vision, do you feel your final results were worth it - if you could do it again, would you?

The chance that a person walks out with perfect vision on the first day after surgery is much lower for a patient with 10 diopters of myopia than for a person with 4-6 diopters. This is because there is more healing in patients with higher levels of myopia.
However, saying that - there are many reasons that a person can have initially hazy vision. The first is if there was an epithelial defect (corneal abrasion) at the time of the procedure. This is thought to occur in one out of every few hundred patients. Depending on the location of the abrasion, there may or may not be some temporary visual affects (if the abrasion is off to the side, the vision is not affected - but if the abrasion is in the center - then the vision can be affected for a few days while the abrasion heals). The treatment of an abrasion is with a contact lens - so this may be what your sister is experiencing.
Other causes of hazy vision include dry eyes, inflammation of the flap, and infection. Your surgeon should be carefully watching your sister's eyes.
In general - most people with high levels of myopia (in th 10-12 diopter range) do end up with good visual results, although there is a lower chance that one would end up with 20/20 vision than a person with 3-5 diopters of myopia.
Patients with high degress of myopia should also be carefully evaluated, as they are more likely not to be good candidates for excellent results. One's surgeon needs to make sure that people with high levels of myopia do not have large pupils in darkness and also that their cornea is sufficiently thick for the procedure. After ruling out these patients, then in general most patients with higher levels of myopia will be happy with the procedure. Careful discussion with the surgeon is critical

I hope this helps

Bill Trattler, MD
Miami, FL