NASA Approves Advanced Lasik for Use on Astronauts

SANTA ANA, Calif., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. (AMO) (NYSE: EYE - News), a global leader in ophthalmic surgical devices and eye care products, today announced that the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has approved the company's LASIK technologies for use on U.S. astronauts. The NASA decision was made following review of extensive military clinical data using AMO's Advanced CustomVue(TM) LASIK with the IntraLase® Method, which showed the combination of technologies provides superior safety and vision.

Approved for use on consumers almost a decade ago, more than 11 million LASIK procedures have been performed to-date, making it the most-common elective surgical procedure in the U.S. But it wasn't until LASIK developed into an all-laser procedure that NASA approved it for use on pilots, mission and payload specialists who face extreme, physically demanding conditions in space. The all-laser LASIK technologies, which utilize wavefront guided and femtosecond lasers, have also been cleared for U.S. military personnel, including most recently Air Force pilots.

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Assessing Ectasia Risk One Patient at a Time

We’re now a decade and a half into the LASIK era, not exactly long-term by medical standards but long enough that some of the risk associated with the procedure have been put to rest, or at least better understood and managed. Post-LASIK dry eye, for example, in most patients can be avoided or successfully treated until the eye recovers normal function.

A focus on better patient selection, improved diagnostic capabilities and more precise technology to create the flap are a few reasons that the incidence of post-LASIK ectasia does not appear to be on the rise as LASIK procedures have increased. While ectasia can’t yet be consigned to the “problem solved” pile, there is heartening news on both the treatment and diagnostic fronts of this rare but disabling complication.

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