I am located in Oregon and have been doing much research into LASIK and have still come back to the same question that has been posted here before. I can go to a local Dr. here that had a good reputation and who I have had time to talk with for $4000+, or drive a few hours and have the surgery done at the Lexington Eye Institute in Canada for $1000+. Now my current eye doctor has personally traveled to Lexington and seen procedures done there asked questions of the surgeons and generally gone through the place looking for problems. He said other than the fact that there is not a lot of personal treatment due to the fact of the number of surgeries they do. There was nothing that he could find wrong with the place and he said they did a good job.
If I could find a legitimate problem with any of their Dr.'s or facility I would not hesitate to throw the idea out of the water. But so far I have not had any bad reasons other than travel (a few hrs.)
I am looking for information on Lexington if possible and also have concerns of the statistics that show 20/20 vision but how many of those patients have ghosting, double vision, halos, etc. this is not taken into account.

Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks,

Mark K.

Hi Mark,
If I lived closer to Canada, I might have considered travel for my surgery (I am in San Deigo County). I feel the things to keep in mind are:
What is your comfort zone with probably meeting your surgeon just before your surgery.

How far are you away if you need to make a hasty return to see your surgeon (you said a few hours, are you comfortable with that, do you have someone to drive you up there for a return trip if you cannot see clearly or are in pain?), or do you have a local surgeon willing to do post-op care if there is a problem that an optomertrist cannot deal with.

Will the center help you with complications, if you have any, as they do so many procedures every day.

For me, living in San Diego, I was not comfortable with the distance to travel to Canada, so I chose a local surgeon for my surgery (with excellent result) for all the reasons I mentioned above, my cost was $3200. It made me much more comfortable to be treated locally. Cost vs. inconvenience of travel is something each person needs to decide individually. I suppose I could have traveled to Mexico (many local surgeons work in Tijuana, also). But I was VERY uncomfortable with that idea. It seems the risks of complications from negligence are very low, but I DID want malpractice law behind me (without 20/20 vision, I am out of a job--this was a HUGE decision for me), which would have disappeard had I travelled south, I am sure.

So, for my comfort zone, I wanted to stay in the US and be treated locally. Even though it cost me quite a bit more than Canada, I am very happy with my decision, and consider the money well spent.

Good luck with your surgery,
Denise