I have recurring iritis in both eyes. Right now my eyes are stable, and I am using 1 drop of Vexol in the left eye daily. My ophthamologist does not think my iritis will be affected by LASIK, but he has never performed LASIK on an iritis patient. I would be curious to hear from any of the panel doctors who have experience with performing LASIK on patients with a history of iritis. Would you have LASIK if you were me?

I have never performed lasik on a patient with iritis. Caution would be in order. I tend to make medical descisions rather conservatively so a second opinion might be in order. If you did have surgery, I would think about having it one eye at a time rather than both at the same time. Perhaps other docs on the bb have had some experience?
Steven Ofner, M.D.
Eugene, Oregon
http://www.eugeneeyecare.com

I have read on this board and elsewhere that people with autoimmune disorders such as iritis may not be good LASIK candidates, but I have never seen an explanation of why. If iritis affects the aqueous humour of the eye and LASIk affects the cornea, what is the basis of the concern? And what is the concern - is it that LASIK might trigger a flare up of the iritis, or is it that the iritis might have an adverse impact on the chances of success of the LASIK surgery?
P.S. I also have a mild form of Crohn's disease (which is probably related to my iritis), but it is controlled completely by daily doses of Asacol.

we are concerned for all the reasons you stated; mainly that any increase in inflammation will adversely effect the outcome of the procedure.

despite the hype of lasik, we can never forget that this is elective surgery, intended to enhance one's lifestyle, not complicate it. there fore we operate only on patients who are most likely to get an excellent outcome. and even then there are a few surprises.

if your iririts had occured several years ago, and had not re occured since, i would not worry so much--but it seems as if you have an active inflammatroy process occurring. wait it out a few years- if things quite down, you may turn into a good candidate.

as it is, surgery could lead to cloudy corneas, glaucoma, cataract- things which may ormay not be reversible.

vision is a vital and important sense- take care of it, and it will server you well.

that's my philosophizing for the day!

debra tennen, md

One of the least understood parts of medicine is
auto immune diseas. The reason we are concerned
is the unpredictabilty of any one patients
disease. Also we know that some autoimmune
diseases like Rheumatoid arthritis can severely
affect the cornea and sclera. Since your disease
is still active I agree with Dr Tennen that you
should wait until a long quiet spell. We may
eventually know what causes and better how to
treat various auto immune diseases.
Leonard Friedman MD Washington DC.....

Thank you, Dr. Ofner, Dr. Tennen and Dr. Friedman, for your thoughtful advice. Although I would love to be rid of my glasses and contacts, I certainly don't want to do anything to jeopardize the health of my eyes. I wish my eyes were more stable, but I have had recurring iritis for 10 years and there has not been a period of more than 18 months that has gone by that I have not had a recurrence (although in recent years, most have been relatively mild recurrences because I have learned to catch them early). For now, I will wait and hope.