I'm hoping that one of you doctors can give me more information on this type of problem. I first posted in "Flap Complications" but was told that I didn't have that, I had loose epithelial and something about skin under the flap? Can you give me some inside as to what this is all about?
Can I read up on it somewhere? Anyone else have this? He also said that if they knew this was this way, he probably wouldn't have done Lasik.
Thanks for any information!

My son had LASIK surgery this morning. When the doctor came out he said he had only done one eye because the top layer on the right eye was "loose" and had "peeled off like an orange" when he did the procedure. The doctor, who came highly recommended and has a long history with LASIK, said he has only had this happen once before. He told my son to expect to be in quite a bit of pain. He gave him Darvocet and also some anesthetic drops (to be used only if the pain was severe.
We are disturbed by the initial results of the surgery. What should we know about this? (I found a reference to Anterior basement membrane dystrophy on the message board, does that sound like what this was?) What should we expect? What special precautions should be taken? What "red-flags" should we be aware of? What is the probability of satisfactory healing vs. scarring, distorted vision, or ongoing problems now? What questions should we ask when we go for follow up (tomorrow)? Any and all information and advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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1. "Loose epithelium"
Posted by William B. Trattler, MD on 23:02:39 6/22/2000
Actually - your son may have a form of anterior basement membrane disease.
Basically, you have described a situation where the epithelial surface sloughed off during LASIK. This is uncommon, but can occur even when there are no preoperative clues that their might be a problem. During the preoperative exam, the surgeon examines the eye with a microscope (called a slit lamp). With some forms of anterior membrane disease, there will be slight irregularities of the epithelial surface. However, there are many patients who have no abnormalities who end uo sloughing during LASIK.
Your surgeon did exactly the right thing - after the first eye had a problem - he stopped!!! The mistake would have been to go on to the second eye.
I know of a situation where the surgeon did not stop - and ended up introducing the sloughed epithelial cells from one eye into the interface of the second eye - and ended up with epithelial ingrowth (which can be a significant problem).
Your son may have some pain for the first day or two while the cornea heals. But there is no reason why your son can not still end up with an excellent result.