Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
nytimes.com
Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
1–10 of 239 posts
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#2This is clickbait FUD. I got lasik last year, and I was very clearly warned about the possibility and likelyhood of every single side effect in this article, aside from the "seeing triple" one. (It worked great for me, incidentally.)
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#3I've worn glasses for almost forty years now, and I'll probably wear them for the rest of my life. I actually like having something between my eyes and flying objects, in spite of the annoyance of always having to clean my glasses (or having to wear bifocals for that matter).
I never liked the idea of undergoing a very new surgical procedure on eyes that are otherwise healthy. Not to mention, I'm old enough now that cataracts may be in my future, though they may be years off.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#4> Nearly half of all people who had healthy eyes before Lasik developed visual aberrations for the first time after the procedure, the trial found. Nearly one-third developed dry eyes, a complication that can cause serious discomfort, for the first time.
If that's actually the case across the full population of Lasik patients that's insane.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#5This, and other summaries of trials / research in here, do indeed imply dramatically more complications than I've ever heard. Gonna have to dive in deeper, I suppose, but the fuzziness around this kind of stuff has been part of the reason I haven't done it already :|
>A recent clinical trial by the F.D.A.[1] suggests that the complications experienced by Mr. Ramirez are not uncommon.
>Nearly half of all people who had healthy eyes before Lasik developed visual aberrations for the first time after the procedure, the trial found. Nearly one-third developed dry eyes, a complication that can cause serious discomfort, for the first time.
[1]: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullartic...
Or this one:
>even after [5] years, nearly half had dry eyes at least some of the time. Twenty percent had painful or sore eyes, 40 percent were sensitive to light, and one-third had difficulty driving at night or doing work that required seeing well up close.
Like... one third have difficulties after 5 years? That's potentially insane if representative.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#6I had LASIK and PRK.
Dry eyes? Check Can’t see shit in low light? Check Weird itchy feeling? Rare, but check
It’s still a huge improvement over glasses or contacts. I probably ha e 5-10 years left before I need glasses again due to old age but I’ll enjoy it until then.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#7I had LASIK and PRK. Dry eyes? Check Can’t see shit in low light? Check Weird itchy feeling? Rare, but check It’s still a huge improvement over glasses or contacts. I probably ha e 5-10 years left before I need glasses again due to old age but I’ll enjoy it until then.
Why doing both? I was considering PRK as it seems safer than LASIK.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#8I'd like to see some more statistics backing this article, as well as real evidence. Who are the doctors that these people are seeing? Is the survey only finding the population of dissatisfied people?
I got PRK a year ago and have zero issues, and I've also never been sent a survey from NYT asking if I have problems. I know 11 people who got LASIK/PRK and no one has reported issues yet.
There's no way a procedure that causes issues in 50% of cases would be legal in the States.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#9I've worn glasses for almost forty years now, and I'll probably wear them for the rest of my life. I actually like having something between my eyes and flying objects, in spite of the annoyance of always having to clean my glasses (or having to wear bifocals for that matter). I never liked the idea of undergoing a very new surgical procedure on eyes that are otherwise healthy. Not to mention, I'm old enough now that…
every time I go into my shop I spend 30 minutes trying to find my safety glasses...then go do something else.
Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus
#10Caveat emptor Mr. Ramirez. Of course you shouldn't trust the seller of the product to tell you all about the product's downside with all the proper emphasis. The information in this article isn't "coming into sharper focus" just now. Stories like yours were already easy to find on the internet more than ten years ago when I investigated this for myself. I visited several gung-ho eye surgeons. Then read enough online to know that there are serious risks of not very uncommon results, especially for those who particularly value their fine vision. Then I spoke to the surgeons about these risks and they were quite open about them and not at all dismissive. I decided not to have Lasik. My brother went ahead with it and regrets it not at all.
No matter how much trustworthiness and gravitas your doctor exudes, and how much they dismiss pecuniary details, they see the evidence of risk through their own strong incentives. You have a duty to yourself to use their advice as just one part of the puzzle.