Rising Concerns with Refractive Surgery
Procedures like LASIK, FEMTO-LASIK, and SMILE are becoming more common, and so are patient complaints. Problems such as blurred vision, one eye healing differently from the other, or persistent blur in both eyes are being reported with increasing frequency.
Why is this happening?
A few patterns are clear:
Commercial pressure: Patients are often lured by low prices or aggressive marketing campaigns.
Ignoring red flags: A surgeon may advise caution, but patients find another center that will still take them.
Hasty decisions:
The choice to undergo laser surgery is sometimes driven more by the desire to be free from glasses than by medical suitability.
Inappropriate patient selection or procedure choice: Not every eye is fit for laser surgery, yet many centers accept almost everyone.
Case Examples
Patient X, UK traveler, -8.0 myopia: Underwent surgery with an outdated machine, resulting in overcorrection and poor vision. The patient remains unhappy and symptomatic.
Patient Y with -7.0 myopia, corneal thickness 480 microns: This is a red flag. If Surgery is still performed, the result will be: still dependent on glasses or worse scnanrio is heightened risk of ectasia and regression.
Key Takeaway
Laser surgery is not risk-free, especially in higher myopia. While some claim that patients with -10.0 myopia can safely undergo these procedures, real-world experience shows otherwise. Above -5.0, risks rise sharply. Safety margins must be rethought, and the bar for eligibility lowered.
The lesson is simple: be cautious, not ambitious.
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