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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Results of Lasik not always clear

By Robert Mitchum
Chicago Tribune

Millions of people are estimated to undergo the Lasik procedure each year in the United States at academic clinics, private practices and corporate centers. While the vast majority experience no long-term complications of the surgery, a small percentage find themselves with permanent visual defects that are difficult to treat and hard to live with. Some of these patients respond in anger; a browse of the Internet will turn up several venomous sites calling for litigation against Lasik surgeons, a horror story from comedian Kathy Griffin and even calls for a ban of the procedure itself.

Other patients suffering from post-surgical complications languish in silence, unaware of their options for treatment. Barbara Berney of Rockford was one of these patients, suffering from a long list of complications after her Lasik surgery in 2001: dry eye, night blindness, dimmed vision and a suite of aberrations, including ghosting, halos and starbursts. 'If you made a list of complications, I'd probably have 70 percent of them,' Berney said. 'How I can stay sane, I don't know.' After a second surgery did not significantly improve her vision, and after an unsuccessful legal action against her surgeon, Berney decided to start an organization for people in her situation: the Vision Surgery Rehabilitation Network.

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Lasik Device To Correct Bifocal Vision Approved

One of America’s biggest eye care companies has had its recent invention-the CustomVue Monovision Lasik device, approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Advanced Medical Optics Inc. claims the invention is the first Lasik device to correct one of a patient's eyes to see far (myopia) and the other eye to see objects close-up (presbyopia).

According to the FDA the instrument works by correcting all the nearsightedness to help distance vision in a patient's dominant eye, while fixing only part of the nearsightedness in the less dominant eye, which helps close-up vision. The FDA has asked the company to conduct a study tracking 500 patients for six months after surgery, to check for potential visual disturbances that could limit activities or worsen a patient's quality of life.

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FDA Approves Monovision LASIK

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first LASIK device to reduce the need for reading glasses after age 40.

Called CustomVue Monovision LASIK, the laser platform and associated software manufactured by AMO/VISX (Santa Clara, CA) treats one eye to see distant objects and the other eye to see things up close.

"The approval of the CustomVue Monovision LASIK expands permanent vision correction options for nearsighted adults who also have trouble focusing on objects close-up. Unlike traditional LASIK, Monovision LASIK may reduce the need for reading glasses in some people over 40." says Daniel Schultz, MD, director of FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health in a press release issued by the FDA on July 12, 2007.

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Heavy myopia may be cured with new laser eye surgery

CORRECTIVE SURGERY: Costing nearly twice as much as conventional LASIK surgery, intraLASIK may be the only option for some cases of myopia
By Angelica Oung
STAFF REPORTER

Myopic patients who wish to improve their vision but are deemed unsuitable for conventional eye surgery can now seek another surgical procedure, an eye doctor said yesterday.

Despite being nearly twice as expensive as laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery, Ting Min-feng, an ophthalmologist, said he had performed "hundreds" of procedures since importing the first equipment at a cost of NT$20 million (US$610,000).

"For some, it is the only option," Ting said.

"With conventional LASIK surgery, the corneal layer is peeled back using a blade before the laser is used to vaporize part of the corneal tissue," Ting said. "The use of femtosecond lasers accomplishes the same task with far greater accuracy."

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Deploying soldiers get free LASIK priority

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Special Forces Groups and other units most likely to go to combat in Iraq will get priority in free laser or photorefractive surgery being offered to soldiers at Fort Carson.

Surgery must be done at least 90 days before a soldier deploys, the Fort Carson Mountaineer reported Friday, quoting military medical officials.

“Right now we do 500 per year. Hopefully, we will triple that amount so that all soldiers who want the procedure and are candidates for it will be able to have it done,” said Mike Ives, Eye Clinic supervisor at Evans Army Community Hospital. Ives encourages soldiers to consider having one of the procedures.

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Bad eyes? Learn about Lasik, Lasek and PRK (from Mayo clinic)

Tribune Media ServicesPublished May 27, 2007
Q. I'm 48 and have been wearing hard contacts since I was 10. Apparently, as we approach 50, our eyes don't produce as many tears, so my lenses have become uncomfortable. What's the latest information on refractive surgery, and which kind has the best success rate?

A. Refractive surgery refers to procedures aimed at correcting "refractive error," an abnormality in the eye's focusing power resulting in nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Nearsightedness occurs when the curvature of the cornea, the transparent membrane that arcs over the front of the eye, is too steep. Farsightedness results if the cornea is too flat. And astigmatism is the problem when the curvature varies.

If discussions with your doctor lead to refractive surgery, instead of eyeglasses, three time-tested procedures are available: laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (Lasik), photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), and laser epithelial keratomileusis (Lasek).

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Laser Eye Surgery Video

The Discovery Channel show "How its Made" has produced an excellent beginning to end segment on laser eye surgery. This one is short on the gory close ups and hi tech and instead takes the viewer step by step through the process. Video is below

LASIK For Older Adults

A new University of Illinois at Chicago study appearing in the online edition of the journal Ophthalmology reports on the safety, efficacy and predictability of laser eye surgery (laser in situ keratomileusis or LASIK) in patients 40-69 years old.

"We are seeing an increasing demand for LASIK surgery for older adults, who present special challenges," said study co-author Dr. Dimitri Azar, Field chair of ophthalmologic research at UIC.

In LASIK surgery, adjustments in correction are routinely made to compensate for the cornea's strong healing responses in younger patients, Azar said. Increased age has been previously associated with poorer final clarity of vision, as measured on an eye chart (visual acuity).

"We were able to show that fine adjustments in the correction to the cornea in our older patients that compensate for differences in age-related healing resulted in reliable predictability of correction," said Azar, who is also professor and head of the UIC department of ophthalmology and visual sciences.

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Blade vs. Laser: Is There a Difference in Outcomes?

David J. Tanzer, MD, San Diego

Perhaps the largest study to date to compare microkeratomes gives the laser the edge.

In the past year, there have been numerous reports comparing the results seen with the femtosecond laser to the visual results when a mechanical microkeratome is used. But few of these studies have included a large number of eyes.

In our most recent LASIK study conducted at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, we set out to evaluate three keratome devices for LASIK flap creation: the Amadeus Microkeratome (Advanced Medical Optics); the Hansatome Microkeratome (Bausch & Lomb); and the IntraLase FS femtosecond laser (IntraLase).

The results show that there are some definitive clinical benefits to using the femtosecond laser for LASIK flap creation, chief among them being a much more reproducible flap.

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Better Eyes in Old Age

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Laser eye surgery isn't just for the young. A new study from the University of Illinois at Chicago shows there are still substantial benefits of laser eye surgery, or LASIK, for older patients. There were known benefits to having LASIK at a young age because of the cornea's strong healing responses, but now researchers have found small adjustments in the correction to the cornea compensate for differences in age-related healing for older patients.

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Wavefront-Guided LASIK: The New Frontier

/24-7PressRelease/ - April 11, 2007

Wavefront-guided LASIK uses Wavefront technology to customize the surgery precisely to your eyes. Traditional LASIK and corrective lenses can correct common vision problems including nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism, but cannot address other problems with quality of vision. Higher order aberrations can cause vision problems such as halos, glare, decreased contrast sensitivity, and shadows. These problems normally do not affect visual acuity (how you test on the eye chart) but affect the quality of what you see in real life. Higher order aberrations can actually be exacerbated by traditional LASIK surgery.

So what are higher order aberrations? As they relate to your vision, they are infinitesimal imperfections that create minute changes in the light rays that pass through your eye. These minute changes in the light rays affect the quality of your vision (even with glasses or contact lenses) although you are probably not even aware of the difference.

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Selling elective refractive procedures

By: Nancy Groves
Ophthalmology

Demonstrating value, meeting individual needs win patients over

Whether a patient is interested in LASIK or in cataract surgery that may include an optional IOL to correct presbyopia, the approach should be the same।

"There are a couple of rules for the road that are really important," explained Shareef Mahdavi।

"One of them is that before you start talking about solutions as a provider, you need to understand the problem that they're going through," Mahdavi said। "The problem is more than just 'I can't see well.' You need to get to their specific and unique concerns."

Getting there means having a conversation with each patient about his or her lifestyle, work habits, leisure activities, computer use, reading—anything that helps you understand them.

"That's really important, and there isn't enough of that being done," Mahdavi said. "People tend to shortcut that step and want to go right into a selling mode, saying why the technology is really good or why that particular surgeon is really good. Typically, that's done sooner than it should be."

Patients want to feel special, and they want to feel listened to," Mahdavi added. "The counselors who do that well are going to have a lot less resistance when it comes to price and people saying yes."

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Lasik Surgery or contacts? Which is better?

Jean Enerson
King5 News

There are more than a million people who say they need vision correction but don't use any.

Whats the best option?

We looked at two women, both have 20-20 vision but they achieved it in different ways.

Claire Anselmo traded in her glasses 6 years ago and became one of more than 30 million Americans who wear contact lenses. They were easy to use, and not as high maintenance as I originally thought they were," she said.

Jacquelyn Walent wore contacts until she developed a fungus and went back to glasses but they were a burden.Article is Here

'Wavefront' charts new way for eye tests

By Deena Beasley

Los Angeles - The next time you go to the eye doctor, chances are a machine will be able to tell whether you can make out "T Z V E C L" before you even try to read the eye chart.

That's because the 100-year-old system used by ophthalmologists to find your eye prescription is likely to be replaced by technology - invented by an astrophysicist - that can precisely measure how light waves are bent by each human eye.

Several companies are working on commercial "wavefront" technology and at least one version, priced in the same
$30 000-$50 000 (R180 000-R300 000) range as other ophthalmic diagnostic imaging systems, is expected on the market later this year.

Since the current method relies on the patient's judgment of whether a particular set of lenses results in better vision, access to more objective, scientific data will give doctors much more accurate measurements, makers of the devices say.

In addition, the combination of wavefront measurements with increasingly popular vision correction surgery enables surgeons to directly input a map of the patient's eye into the lasers used to reshape the cornea.

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Laser Eye Surgery: 10 Years Later

CBS News

If you're considering laser surgery to correct your nearsightedness, you can rest assured that the results will last long term.

A team of researchers from Spain tracked LASIK surgery (laser in-situ keratomileusis) and its forerunner, PRK (photorefractive keratectomy). In both procedures, the cornea is reshaped so that light entering the eye focuses on the retina in the back of the eye, as it does in those with normal vision.

"Our findings are that both are safe after 10 years," and the visual correction holds for the most part, says researcher Jorge Alio, M.D., Ph.D., an ophthalmologist.

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What to Look for in LASIK

Click2 Houston.com
J. Scott Wilson, Staff writer

The ads are everywhere, on TV and radio and in the newspaper and your e-mail box: "Live Without Glasses or Contacts!" "Vision Restoration!"

All the noise is over LASIK surgery, but does it really work? The short answer, for the vast majority of clients, is yes.

Jennifer Haynes-Watkins, a Web journalist in Belmont, N.C., had LASIK five years ago

"As cliché as it sounds, LASIK really did change my life. I’ll never forget my first trip to the beach after my surgery. I woke up in the middle of the night in the hotel and could actually see to get to the bathroom and didn’t have to pat down the entire nightstand to find my glasses. It was like a whole new world," she says.

Haynes-Watkins recounts her first trip to the beach after the surgery.

"Who knew you could actually just open your eyes and walk over? Then, to be able to go swimming without feeling like the children in the pool were planning an evil plot to splash you and ruin your contacts was great, too. I could go from lounge chair to pool and back without thinking twice about my vision."

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Eye Braces To Correct Vision

LOS ANGELES -- Should you get laser surgery, contacts or wear glasses? All are choices that should be made with your eyes wide open. But what if you could change the way you see while you sleep and straighten out bad vision with eye braces?

Following is a verbatim script from the on-air report:

Eye Doctor: Day glow eyes ... we put a little florescent dye in so we could see the tear pattern

Peggy Pico, Reporter: It's just one way to see if NBC producer, Tim Williams' special contact lenses or eye braces are in place.

Tim volunteered for a research study on the nightwear corrective lenses ... officially known as orthocaratolgogy or CRT lenses.

The hard and thick glass contact lenses are worn to bed each night

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Dr. James Salz Highlights Advantages of "Wavefront" LASIK and PRK

PRWeb

Dr. James Salz
"Years of Refinement Have Made Laser Eye Surgery Better Than Ever" by Michelle Andrews.

In the article, Dr. James Salz, discussed "wavefront" technology for LASIK and PRK refractive procedures. According to Dr. James Salz, "wavefront technology" increases the chance of obtaining 20/20 vision and reduces higher order aberrations such as glare and starbursts by providing a more precise map of the unique optical landscape of a patient's eyes. Dr. Salz can be seen performing the LASIK refractory surgery procedure on a patient in the accompanying photo (by Joey Terrill).

The article discusses LASIK, PRK, and other laser eye procedures, such as LASEK and Epi-LASIK, and interviews both patients who have had laser vision correction surgery and the doctors who perform these types of procedures. The article provides a good summary of eye conditions that can be improved with laser eye surgery procedures as well as some of the complications that can occur. In addition, the article notes what patients should look for in selecting a doctor in order to obtain the best results from LASIK, PRK or another laser vision correction surgery.