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  • From: "Ruth Suehle" <wuzzled AT nc.rr.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Lasic Surgery
  • Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 09:03:41 -0400

Oops. Apparently I only replied to Simon last night with this.

> Do you have citations in the literature for these cases? The FDA states
> that there were no reported cases of blindness following either PRK or
> LASIK as of June 1999, so I would assume that these cases were
> considered newsworthy

Number one, yeah, let me hop right on hunting down a former coworker's son
to ask if he's been cited somewhere. Sheesh. Two, to be someone demanding
citation, you can't come up with a more recent report than five years old
when the surgery was just becoming popular? Three, what does the FDA count
as blind? Because as far as I'm concerned, and I suspect a lot of people
involved, just because you don't see anything at all out of an eye doesn't
mean it's useful. Even in people born "blind," there's a huuuuge range
between seeing nothing at all, not even difference between light and dark,
and being what people call "legally blind."

And I CAN easily find you a gob of articles like "Lawsuits Mount for Lasik"
in the LA Times, which begins, "Patients unhappy with the results of Lasik
surgery are increasingly suing doctors and clinics for compensation,
complaining that the procedure actually worsened their vision and, in the
most extreme cases, left them legally blind."

It adds:
"A Buffalo, N.Y., man, for instance, won a $1.2-million verdict against the
doctor and center where he had Lasik surgery after his eye was lacerated so
badly that he is now virtually blind without corrective lenses. And a
Kentucky jury awarded a 38-year-old woman a record $1.7 million after four
laser surgeries left her legally blind in her left eye."


But to get back closer to the topic as posed, according to another article,
"a Baltimore researcher reported in a peer-reviewed journal in May that
41.5% of 176 LASIK patients surveyed said they had more difficulty driving
after the surgery." Not that driving is important to most of us, right?

And someone with one sliced cornea may not be considered officially "blind,"
but that person sure can't see very well either.


Having been wearing glasses since I was five years old, LASIK sounded really
good to me at first. I've even had friends with successful surgeries, and I
think that's awesome. But after a lot of reading and a lot of research, I
don't think I would be considering it as strongly if I weren't having
problems with contacts that could lead to blindness down the road. If I do
decide to do it, I'll spend a lot of time looking for a doctor I really
trust, particularly in the screening process. I certainly don't want someone
who will tell almost anyone she's a good candidate, because it's simply not
true. I'd also rather wait a few more years until some more long-term effect
studies can be done.

That should be worth about 4 cents. :-)
Ruth






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