I had this interesting question from Sophie:

Dear Mr. Allamby, My father has keratoconus, I believe he has had it a long time but was diagnosed officially at an eye test when he was 30 (he is now 50) will this affect my chances of laser eye surgery and would it be safe to proceed if I show no current symptoms (I am 21).

Many thanks, Sophie

Dear Sophie, Thanks for your question. Keratoconus (KC) is most often sporadic (not apparently inherited) but has been observed to run in some families. Typically it is first seen in adolescence. Around 80% of cases do not progress. As you are now 21, if you have KC there may well be changes in the corneas already so the best next step would be to see you for corneal scans. These are now very sophisticated at picking up even early changes of KC before they would affect your vision.

We perform thin-flap femtosecond LASIK with our new Crystal Line Ziemer down to 500 microns central corneal thickness (CCT). Below that we would normally do PRK, and also PRK if there is any slight irregularity in corneal shape. However, it is the appearance on the scans that is more important in your case, and CCT is only one of the risk factors we look at when considering suitability.

I am rather obsessed with safety, and any doubt whatsoever means I would advise against any treatment, even if you were very keen!

You may have seen this article on laser eye surgery in the Daily Mail last week. The article describes the serious complications suffered by Lois Roberts following her laser eye surgery 3 years ago.

Yet, instead of the simple pain-free experience Lois was led to expect, the surgery to correct her short-sightedness left her in agony for days. Worse, three years on, she still has painfully dry eyes as a result of damage to the nerves that stimulate tears. Lois has to apply eye drops daily – which in itself is a problem, as long-term use can raise the risk of chronic eye inflammation. Dry eyes can also lead to serious infections and, ultimately, even loss of vision.

As well as dry eyes, Lois suffers from constant floaters and poorer night vision. ‘The floaters are like clumps of black lines and dots,’ she says. ‘I’ve been reassured they’re harmless, but they are incredibly annoying.’

How accurate was this piece? Sadly, not very much at all. Interestingly, Lois herself added the following comments on the online version of the article:

Hi all – I’m Lois from the article I just wanted to confirm that I do NOT regret having laser eye surgery. I was shocked when I saw a huge picture of myself saying that laser eye surgery has ruined my sight! This is not true. For me personally, I don’t find the dry eyes and floaters a big problem, yes they’re annoying but hey it’s worth it for me. Also, I would never EVER have had laser surgery after watching an advert on the tv! I had it done in Manchester, the same place as my father had his done very successfully around 15 years ago. I thought this article was going to look at the positive and negative effects of laser surgery. For me, it’s great to be able to surf and play sports without having to worry about whether I’d be able to put my contacts in. Anyway, I feel better now I’ve had a little rant! Thank you for some of the lovely comments!

- Lois, North Wales, 01/12/2010 11:04

Another reader, Andy, added his feelings on this:

Thankful that Lois has been able to put in a comment that counters the sensationalism of this article … But you do get what you pay for! … There are enough alternative, highly rated clinics out there with fantastic reputations that you can choose from. Do not undervalue your eyes – laser eye surgery IS surgery and should not be treated like buying anything else on the high street. Please do your research into laser eye surgery clinics and you will avoid the problems detailed in this sensationalist article.

- Andy, Guildford, Surrey, 01/12/2010 17:30

You should look around carefully before choosing the clinic and surgeon for your laser eye surgery. You get one pair of eyes, after all. If you are unlucky enough to need to wear glasses, laser eye surgery is a realistic option and safe in the right hands. The latter emphasis is important. For example, dry eyes occur in those who had dry eye before the procedure, and these patients should not have LASIK.

Kate asked:

Hi,

I’ve been to consults at two clinics, one that does PRK, and the other LASIK (with a blade). Both clinics offered a similar quote and both said I was an ideal candidate for the surgery (I’m a healthy 23 year old female with mild astigmatism and the same prescription of -1.5 in both eyes since I’ve had glasses (2001). The only thing a out of the norm is that my corneas are a little steep (46). Is there going to be a benefit to me choosing one surgery over the other?

Cheers, Kate

Winston asked:

I am 19 , with -6.25 in the left eye and -7.25 in right. I have been wearing glasses for about 9 to 10 ten years.
What would you recommend? I do boxing as well as other physical activity.

Omar asked:

Good Afternoon Mr Allamby,
I’m considering getting some treatment on my eyes, but am very worried about the long-term effect cutting the cornea can have. As i get older and my eyesight deterioates. will the my eyesight be worse off than if i had just kept wearing glasses?

Omar, I think this is one of the most common worries that prospective candidates have when considering laser eye surgery be it LASIK or PRK. It is just over 20 years since we first performed PRK for short-sight, and just under 20 years for LASIK, so we have considerable experience of long-term results.

The long-term outcomes have been excellent to date. Regression is seen in the London PRK study in 1-2% of patients, with a partial return to myopia, but not as bad as the vision had been before without glasses.

Cutting the cornea (e.g. to create a flap or flap disc) has been around for decades. Lamellar cuts were made in the 50s, and the first mechanical keratome was first used in 1963. No long term problems were seen, except when too little thickness was left in the cornea. At my clinic, we use a high safety standard of leaving 300 microns in the corneal bed, after creating the flap with a femtosecond laser and using the excimer laser to reshape the cornea.

The main worry is in excessive weakening of the cornea. However, the incidence of bending of the cornea through weakness in post-LASIK patients is the same as the incidence of bending from a disease known as keratoconus (KC). So in normal LASIK where all the safety parameters are observed, we are not sure if LASIK actually contributes to corneal bending post-operatively.

The key here, as always, is rigorous screening pre-operatively and visiting a centre where you get sufficient time for your consultation. Some clinics do consultations in 30 minutes, or even less. Others (mine included) spend much longer. Focus consultations take at least 2 hours.

Choose carefully.

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Marie asked:

I had a detached retina 3 years ago, I have just had the go ahead from Optical Express to say i can have laser but I had been advised by the Dr who did the detachment at that time never to have it done and also by Specsavers after my annual eye test. What would you advise?

Marie, It’s a good question. Does LASIK increase the risk of retinal detachment? Or does retinal detachment, which is more commonly found in short-sighted patients who incidentally have LASIK, happen anyway ?

The suction applied by the keratome or femtosecond laser during flap creation can put tension on the vitreous gel and retina, and theoretically increase the risk of retinal problems. What evidence is there for this?

At the 2009 AAO meeting in San Francisco, Dr. J Fernando Arevalo reported no apparent causal relationship between LASIK and retinal detachment. Over 11,500 eyes were examined retrospectively and the incidence of retinal detachment was found to be lower than the general population. The study included patients that developed a retinal detachment as far out as 13 years after the procedure.

In a 10-year review presented by Dr Vincenzo Pucci MD at the 2003 ASCRS international eye conference, laser refractive surgery for high myopia did not appear to increase the risk of either retinal detachment or re-detachment. His series comprised 2,809 eyes of 1,477 patients who had undergone either LASIK or PRK for the correction of myopia or myopic astigmatism up to -13 dioptres.

Together these studies support the conclusion that the retinal detachment rate after excimer laser surgery for the treatment of high myopia is not increased, compared with the natural history of unoperated myopic eyes.

In my practice, for a comprehensive safety approach, I usually have the eyes examined by a retinal surgical specialist to get the all clear before any laser eye surgery procedure. Also, this specialist will review the retina afterwards to be certain no new holes or tears have appeared.

Anne asked:

Hi Dave,
I am in contact with your clinic re: having Lasik. I just have a couple of questions:

1/ What is your re-treatment rate?
2/ How many dry eye cases are persistent/long-term?

Thanks, Anne

Anne, our enhancement rate is under 1% for short-sghted patients, and slightly higher for blended vision patients (distance plus reading correction).
Our “20/20 or better” rate is 99.4% for short-sighted patients up to -9.00D.

We have seen long-term dryness in a handful of patients, out of thousands of treatments. I find it is a rare problem when patients are properly screened, and treated pre-op if there is some dryness present. The way we keep these rates very low is by being vary careful on who we operate on, and excluding those with significant dry eye.

Sandor asked this question on Lasik flap healing:

Dear Dave,
Is it true that corneal flaps never heal completely after Intralasik? What is the chance of dislocation during the rest of the patients life?
Thank you in advance, Sandor

Sandor, it’s an important question. It is true that thicker (e.g. blade, keratome) flaps never fully heal. They can be surgically lifted many years after. However, thin flaps such as are created with femtosecond lasers (around 100-110 microns) appear to heal significantly more strongly.

The healing in the uppermost layers of the cornea is different from deeper down. Collagen fibres are more wavy and heal much better when cut with a thin flap. I have found a couple of patients where I have tried to lift femtosecond flaps, and they were fully bonded down and impossible to lift after a year post-op. This has never been the case with keratome blade cut flaps which I have always been able to lift, even many years later.

IntraLasik is just the brand name for flaps made with the Intralase American made femtosecond laser. Using the Swiss Ziemer laser it is called Z-LASIK.

The key question first is the depth at which a flap was cut. One of the major reasons why many clinics have invested in femtosecond lasers over the much cheaper keratomes (10x more expensive for a femtosecond) is being able to cut predictable accurate thin flaps, with their better healing.

If it was a thin flap, e.g from a femtosecond laser (Ziemer, Intralase, Visumax, Femtec), I expect the lifetime chance of dislocation will be zero.

Sally asked:

I am considering laser eye surgery but am prone to keloid scars. Would this be a problem?

My reply was:

Hi Sally
Keloid scarring should be no problem with LASIK laser eye surgery. I have done several patients with keloid and had excellent LASIK vision results. No problems with healing at all.
Best regards, Dave

Anne asked:

Hi Dave,
I’ve come across a lot of comments from lasik patients re: dry eyes. Many of these did not suffer with dry eyes prior to surgery. Can this become a long-term issue as many people say they are still experiencing dry eyes 6 months down the line? Also, is it something that can be avoided through the laser used and surgeon’s experience/ability? I know that you say patients do not experience TLS with the Ziemer laser, so can the same be said of dry eyes?
You mentioned in one of your previous replies that there was someone in the Cheshire area I could go to for a consultation (with a view to having surgery with Focus), please could I have their contact details?
Many thanks, Anne

Hi Anne,
A temporary reduction in tears following LASIK happens in all cases, although many are unaware of it. It happens because the superficial corneal nerves are cut during flap creation. The cornea becomes number and the nerves have to re-grow to supply the surface with normal sensation. This takes 3-6 months with a thin femtosecond flap, longer with a thicker blade flap.

The thinner the flap, the less distance to re-grow and so the sooner the cornea returns to normal. So having patients report still having dryness at 6 months is not unusual, especially if they had a thicker flap.

In some cases of ongoing dry eye, there can have been some pre-existing deficit in the tear film or tear quality that gets exacerbated by the temporary numbness in the cornea and other factors (e.g. loss of goblet cells).

I find ongoing dryness is rare in my clinic, and I think that is because we are rigorous in diagnosing, and treating where needed, prior to surgery. Technology cannot avoid the creation of some dryness (whether symptomatic or not). However creating a thin flap with a femtosecond laser makes for less dryness of shorter duration.

But it is the skill of the surgeon and clinical team that heads of problems before they are created, by not operating on patients who may lead to later trouble. Patients with marked dry eye should not have LASIK. Some dryness though can be managed and treated pre-op and so allow those patients to still be eligible for LASIK and without long-term problems.

Anne, call one of my team on 0845 5000 500 and we can connect you with our optometrist in Cheshire for an assessment.

Amar asked:

You mentioned using mytomycin C for LASEK procedures. Is this generally a safe drug to use on ones corneas? In your opinion, what does a femtosecond laser offer over a microkeratome procedure. Can it be said if one is better than the other? Also, in higher prescriptions, given all other parameters are met including corneal thickness, which flap creation technique would be more advisable. Can both options create buttonholes?
Thank you so much for your help, Amar

Thanks Amar. MMC (mitomycin) appears to be safe. In 2000, Majdamur and colleagues were the first to describe MMC effects on post-PRK and postradial keratotomy subepithelial fibrosis (haze formation). We have not seen significant complications with its use over the past decade and I do use it on eyes where there is greater risk of haze.
I have written plenty on femtosecond lasers and blade keratomes, and you can see those posts under the lasik and safety categories. Both can create buttonholes, but the great advantage of the femotsecond laser is that you can identify the hole without lifting the flap and so get a complication-free healing, which isn’t always the same with a blade cut. In that case, the flap is already lifted by the keratome and there are risks of scarring at the edge of the hole and possible epithelial ingrowth.
Go for the femtosecond flap if you have the option.

Here is a question on LASIK flap healing received this week:

Hi Dave,

I recently got custom lasik done on April 29 2010 with a microkeratome. I’m worried now because im reading all this stuff on how the flap never really heals. How easy is it to dislodge the flap? And How worried should i be and can they amputate the flap if it ever becomes dislodged?
thanks Dave

In reply, I said that yes, it is true that the flap interface does not heal strongly when cut deeper, as with most (blade) microkeratomes. It is possible to lift those thicker keratome flaps even years later. However, the flaps will not move with normal daily life activities, and are only at risk with direct significant trauma. There are case reports of flaps moving with direct injury, including an air bag, but these events are rare for most people so you don’t need to worry.
However, the better healing at the interface of thin flaps is one of the reasons for the introduction of femtosecond lasers, which is now available at 80% of UK clinics. I have written on this topic in more detail before, but am sure we will come back to it.

Here is a recent question I was asked on whether LASIK is suitable for thin corneas:

“Dear David, I wrote a while ago to ask whether Z Lasik gave greater scope to those of us with thin corneas for having Lasik as opposed to Lasek or PRK. At the time, I didn’t know what my actual measurement was – I have since had my notes from my previous check and they read L 465, R 473. However, reading recent posts on your blog I see that you do not recommend any ‘flap cutting’ to anyone with a corneal thickness measurement of under 500. I suppose what I’m asking, is if that is completely set in stone? Does Z Lasik not allow you to consider previously borderline cases?“,

And another question on the same topic:

Hi Dave,
I have myopia of -6.5 and -2 for astigma. I have a corneal thickness of 490 micron. I went for 2 different consultations. One surgeon recommend that i should do PRK because he said that it is safer than iLasik (intralase) due to zero flap create. The other doctor recommended me to go with Intralase because he said that it is possible. I know that both procedures are safe. But i am just a bit concern in the long term. Also, what is the down side of having intralase over PRK or the other way around?

Average central corneal thickness is 530-540 microns. Many surgeons, myself included, don’t cut LASIK flaps in corneas less than 500 microns, although there are surgeons who will. In the first question, this person had very thin corneas (465 and 473 microns) and in my opinion should NOT have LASIK. In the second, the corneas are thin at 490 microns, but not excessively so.

It is true that being able to create very accurate LASIK flaps with the new femtosecond lasers (e.g. Ziemer, Intralase, Zeiss) leaves more tissue behind and so allowing larger treatments. More on this topic in my next post.

For LASIK laser eye surgery safety, there are 3 things you must look for when you plan to go ahead. This LASIK safety trio means a more accurate result and the safest procedure we know of today:

1. Choose a blade-free all laser LASIK technique – using the latest femtosecond lasers means no blade is used in the surgery. Check with any clinic you talk to that they can offer blade-free LASIK – if they can’t then they are out of date and should be avoided.
2. Wavefront-based LASIK is a must today, so make sure you go for that option. For example, at FOCUS Laser Vision we only do wavefront treatments so that is taken care of. At other centres such as Optical Express, do not choose their non-wavefront option.
3. Get the safety and reassurance of NHS consultant corneal specialist surgeons to do your treatment – the three laser eye chains do not offer this for the great majority of their treatments. Premier centres like Moorfields Eye Hospital, Centre for Sight and FOCUS Laser Vision do.

This is a common question about laser eye surgery safety I get asked by patients:

What happens if my vision isn’t right after treatment?

Most people don’t realise that the effect of laser eye surgery, including LASIK, LASEK and PRK procedures, CAN be fully reversed.

Although this isn’t necessary because if the prescription for glasses hasn’t been fully corrected then a second treatment is easily performed to fix that and stay free from the need for glasses or contact lenses. If the effect of the laser correction is a bit too strong or too weak, we call this an over-correction or an under-correction respectively.

All over- and under-corrections can be treated easily. In fact, as I mentioned, the whole laser eye treatment can be reversed. The move over to the Ziemer blade free system (Z-LASIK) has dramatically reduced the need to re-do LASIK treatments.

Most clinics quote enhancement rates of around 5%.  BUT with Z-LASIK for short-sight I have only had to adjust one case in the last 200, so that’s a 0.5% rate. Without any hype or spin, that’s just very impressive and a great step forward.

To fully reverse the effect of e.g. a short-sighted laser eye treatment, we remove some tissue from the outer part of the cornea to put the corneal curvature back to where it started. So now an equal amount of tissue has been removed across the cornea and so the focus would be back where it started. Of course, the cornea is a little thinner than before, but still strong enough for its role.

It’s the accuracy of the dual laser approach that allows such a very low enhancement rate, which means 99.5% of short-sighted patients are on target and very happy with only one treatment and without the need for a top-up.