I recently spoke with a trusted, well respected ophthamologist who I have known for many years. He feels that LASIK is mutilating the eye and should not be performed on a healthy eye that can be corrected with contact or glasses. How would you respond? Thank you.

I agree 100%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/stories/hclaser.shtml

Of course some people have problems....but if patient is properly screened like I was than the stories or pre condition that many of these patients may have had before lasik would make the story sound different... VERY SATISFIED PATIENT HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Every person can have an opinion. My wife's eyes are beautiful (not mutilated) and she no longer wears glasses or contacts (from -6.50 preop to 20/15 vision in both eyes)

Here is a very interesting fact. Do you know that the doctors who first began putting plastic lenses inside the eye after cataract surgery were considered heretics. When they went to lecture on their achievements in the 1960's- 1970's, they were ridiculed by other ophthalmologists. It was only after over a decade of perseverance that they were finally able to prove that a plastic lens implanted at the time of cataract surgery greatly improved the standard of living in almost all patients.
Do you know that in the 1990's - a plastic implant is placed into every single eye during cataract surgery performed in the United States. Many of the ophthalmologists who voiced their objections in the 1970's are now some of the biggest utilizers of this technology.

It does not alarm me if a doctor disagrees. I critically look at objections when I am determining what is best for my patients. LASIK is clearly an outstanding procedure that continues to provide excellent results. I know many eye surgeons across the U.S. who have had LASIK - so if eye surgeons are having this surgery themselves- they obviously believe that LASIK is safe and effective.

My last comment is to inform some of the LASIK bashers that one of the alternatives to LASIK - contact lenses - can also be a serious health risk to the eye. As a cornea specialist, I take care of contact lens-associated corneal infections on a daily basis. Many patients in the United States go blind every day from the use of contact lenses (especially when patients sleep in them). So please also lobby against the use of contact lenses if you want to reduce the risk of eye injury in the U.S.

Thank you for listening to this long explanation

Bill Trattler, MD
Miami,FL

Your comments were very much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to respond with such detail!

BRAVO!! i agree with all of dr trattler's comments. thank you for saving my fingers from the typing!!

debra tennen, md

I cannot give you the numbers that described my eyes before the surgery, but I can say that I had really bad myopic astigmatism.I had to wear contact lenses to see in the distance and reading glasses on top of them!! When not wearing lenses I was stuck with bifocals. The contact lenses had become an terrible irritant...I looked like the whites of my eyes had road maps in them. I had my first lasik surgery in March and recently underwent an enhancement to my left eye that still saw double images at night. I can now see perfectly at night and day. I can deal with readers. Thank goodness for Lasik I love my new found vision. And to actually see the whites of my eyes without all those red lines is pure ecstasy:)

Sorry, Dr. Shivago, but from my point of view anyone who uses aliases loses a great deal of credibility with me.

If you're confident of yourself, your motives, and those of your sources, why are you afraid to identify yourself accurately?

--jim <><

THE DOCTOR YOU HEARD FROM IS PROBABLY OLDER AND DOES NOT WANT TO LEARN THE PROCEDURE. LAST FRIDAY WHEN I HAD LASIK DONE NO ONE WAS THERE WITH A MACHINE GUN FORCING ME TO HAVE THE PROCEDURE.
IN 20 YEARS OR LESS WHENEVER A PERSONS EYES MATURE THEY WILL HAVE THIS OR A SIMILAR PROCEDURE SO NO ONE WILL NEED GLASSES OR CONTACTS. THE SAME WAY THERE IS NO REASON FOR A CHILD TO GET POLIO OR MANY OTHER ILLNESSES.
EVEN IN AN EXTREME SITUATION SUCH AS BLINDNESS, THEY PROBABLY CAN DO A CORNEAL TRANSPLANT AND START OVER.