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Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

nytimes.com

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Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#211

Post by titzer »

pm90 wrote: post #174
titzer wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person who recently wore contacts every day until dry eyes and an injury forced me to switch back to glasses, I have almost entirely the opposite experience. It bothers me to wear glasses again. My prescription is quite strong, so it creates a pretty significant distortion, stronger towards the edges of the lenses. It's hard to do sports, as I now have a background fear about losing/breaking them, and the distor…

If you don't mind can you share how your contacts damaged your eyes? I wear daily disposables almost everyday and sometimes forget to remove them at night... is that how you damaged your eyes?

In my case my eyes just kept getting drier and drier, and that eventually caused conjuctivitis (inflammation of the eyelid and the covering of the eye). It was mistaken for an eye infection originally. Conjuctivitis + contacts led to an injury of the epithilium, either caused by the contacts literally bonding to and ripping off the epithilium, or by debris being caught and scratching, unable to be washed away due to lack of moisture. The symptoms were cloudy, blurry vision, itchiness, sensitivity to light, and pain. Cloudy vision and pain are f'in scary.

In my case I ended up with lesions that had to be treated with antibiotics, lubricating gel, and a kind of "bandage" contact lens, since the inflammation of the eyelids can cause further damage of the eye.

Please do be careful with your eyes. Don't sleep in your contacts, use lubricating drops, and if you feel debris or other discomfort, take them out!

I was lucky thanks to antibiotics warding off any potential infection. An infection coupled with an injury can threaten your sight. The prognosis is generally pretty good for minor epithilium and corneal damage, usually. For me, it was mind-alteringly painful, but after healing my vision is pretty much perfect with the glasses I had before. Despite being annoyed by my glasses, I am truly thankful that I can see! It is hard to communicate what 2 weeks in a dark room with the question of blindness stirring in your head can make you face.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#212

Post by mschaef »

vowelless wrote: post #31

Has anyone tried refractive lensectomy for astigmatism and/or myopia? Think cataract surgery, but for improving near/far sightedness, etc. So you end up with artificial intraocular lenses. It costs about double what LASIK does, but doesn't seem to have the side effects.

I had cataract surgery done. For cataracts. At age 42.

The doctor was able to correct out something like -12D myopia in both eyes with a precision that was mainly limited by the fact that lens implants only come in 0.5D increments. She was also able to use a laser to ablate the cornea in a way that corrected out astigmatism. In the span of two relatively brief surgeries, I went from >35 years of needing to use glasses to now, where I'm typing this post without any external correction at all. It's an amazing result, particularly considering the risks involved with such a high degree of myopia.

That said, I'd never do it just for the purpose of correcting nearsightedness. The implants work, but you mostly lose the ability to focus. There are ways around this, but the technology is still relatively new, and carries with it risks of visual artifacts. There are also the literally 500 eye drops you have to take and risks of various complications during surgery. (One noteworthy risk is that if the lens's bag ruptures during the phacoemulsification, the lens drops into the posterior chamber of the eye and requires a vitrectomy to retrieve.)

It's an amazing procedure, I'm thankful to have had the option to have it done, but I wouldn't recommend it unless and until you absolutely need it.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#213

Post by titzer »

tormeh wrote: post #148
titzer wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, given that my eyes are already so dry, and this plus contacts led to me injuring my corneas on more than one occasion, one of which meant I spent ~2 weeks in a dark room, essentially blind. So doctors recommend I do not do Lasik. :(

What about Lasek? Generally has less complications and less invasive, but takes more time to heal.

I am not going to risk it at this point. Both involve cutting through the epithilium to get at the cornea underneath, and in my case some of the cells that pump moisture through the epithilium were damaged or destroyed, so it's even more of a risk than for most people.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#214

Post by npongratz »

bradleyjg wrote: post #41

Anyone here wear the contact lenses that reshape your eyes at night and then during the day you have corrected vision and no lenses? Mostly I don't mind glasses and contacts, but there are some activities I'd rather not have to rely on them.

I tried corneal shaping (contact prescription was about -6.0 for both eyes), and stopped it after roughly six months and three different prescribed lenses. I wore the rigid lenses at night while I slept, and took them out in the morning when getting ready for work (6:30-7am).

I experienced some undesirable effects daily: vision sharpness was perfect in the morning, but would noticeably regress starting around 3pm; I saw halos at night; and the combination of progressively more blurry vision and halos made my night vision really suck. I wasn't comfortable driving at night, and seeing stars in the sky was impossible (maybe sounds silly, but I found that to be a quality-of-life issue). Also, I think the area that could be treated was narrower than my field of vision, similar to how glasses treat a narrower field than regular contact lenses.

Turns out my pupils naturally dilate far more than the average person's (so the halos were partially treatable with brimonidine daily), and my cornea either isn't thick enough or reshapes itself too quickly -- or both, can't remember exactly. Whatever it was, I remember my doctor saying that I would probably experience similar undesirable side effects were I to get Lasik.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#215

Post by npunt »

OrwellianChild wrote: post #186
pretendscholar wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hows your night vision?

My night vision has been completely fine since the surgery, with no major haloing or aberrations. I do not know whether this is a function of PRK vs LASIK, a good doctor/procedure, or luck. (Maybe a bit of all 3?)

Did you get the TransPRK (SmartsurfACE) procedure? I ask because people from the US typically go to Canada to get it since its not available here. Seems like the much better bet for long term results vs Lasik.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#216

Post by npunt »

bigjimmyk3 wrote: post #198

I had PRK about a year ago, and I'm very happy to have done so. I wore contacts / glassses for about 35 years prior, and I don't miss them at all. I have experienced some of the post-op complications mentioned in the article, but I'm not a good data point there because of many confounding factors: my age means that I'm starting to experience things (allergies, presbyopia) that would have happened regardless of the su…

Thanks for bringing up the accessibility point. I had some issues in the past where I needed to use some accessibility features and it gave me massive appreciation for the people/platforms that worked hard to make them usable for everyone.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#217

Post by reitanqild »

jcadam wrote: post #203
gameshot911 wrote: post #40

I think this is a unique view, but I've come to appreciate nearsightedness. Partially because I like having the ability to soften the external world by removing my glasses (like wrapping myself in a warm fuzzy blanket), but even more so because it grants me the ability to see things near me in sharper focus than someone with 20/20 vision. I can put on contacts or glasses to see something at a distance just as clearly…

Bah, my eye Rx is -8.5 diopters. Taking off my glasses/contacts doesn't "soften" the external world - it makes me unable to function. If I forget where I put my glasses after taking out my contacts at night before going to bed, I have to call my wife to find them for me. If I try moving around too much, I'm liable to hurt myself. I'll probably want to get LASIK at some point :)

Both eyes worse than -6.

I use special always-on contacts since 5 years ago or so, change them once a month. This reduces the hassle a lot.

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#218

Post by pps43 »

amorphous wrote: post #189
pps43 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearsightedness does not go away after 40 (presbiopia does not cancel out myopia).

I meant "viewing something as close to my nose as I comfortably can" won't last long.

People like myself with both presbiopia and myopia can still comfortably view something close to the nose (without glasses).

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#219

Post by meow81 »

neofrommatrix wrote: post #57

I had Lasik done in India to both my eyes in 2009. The total cost came out to Rs. 25000 (~500 USD) for both eyes. I went from a 20/600 to 20/20 in 15 minutes. Best decision of my life. I made sure to get the surgery done from a highly reputed ophthalmic surgeon who had performed 1000s of surgeries with success. As in every surgery, there are side effects. For me, there was temporary mild dryness that lasted a few mon…

The flap heals. Where did you hear that it doesn't?

https://www.huntervision.com/blog/5-lasik-myths

Re: Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

#220

Post by navs »

greedo wrote: post #150
navs wrote: post #34

YMMV of course. But I got LASIK done just over a year ago. I'd worn glasses since I was a kid and don't remember a time without them. Things I love after having done LASIK: - Being in the rain - Boxing - Not fumbling for my glasses after a shower, waking up - Being able to just rub my eyes - Wearing 3D glasses Things I don't like after having done LASIK - night vision is really quite bad. Low lit streets, driveways c…

Boxing? As in punches thrown at your head? Can't imagine that's safe for someone who had LASIK since the chance of corneal flap damage would be quite high.

Definitely not sparring. Mostly hitting pads. Something I could do with glasses on but I found it annoying as it got in the way of training.
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