Comments on: LASIK Long Term Effects and Safety

By: Damian

Damian — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:25:28 +0000

Thank you for the reply. I’m planning to get lasEk anyway as I don’t see any advantages to lasIk other than the end result being reached quicker and with less discomfort – which are factors that aren’t all that important to me. And from what I’ve read I suspect Tsai’s findings, if there is actually anything to them, aren’t as relevant to lasEk.

By: Dave Allamby

Dave Allamby — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:40:59 +0000

Hi Damian. It’s hard to comment here without any information. I hadn’t heard of Dr Tsai before but seems he started LASIK in the early 90s as most countries did, including the UK. He has mentioned 10 patients but without any other details, apart from ‘some had inflammation’, as you mentioned. We haven’t seen this in other countries or centres, and LASIK hasn’t led to late inflammation elsewhere. Or indeed any other late complications over 20 years. So hard to wonder what is going on here. There may be a local back story we are not aware of. Normally a doctor would present such patients as a case series to the profession, either at a clinic conference or in a peer reviewed journal. But in this case, he held a local press conference to the general media, and didn’t present any clinical details. We don’t any more about these cases, or indeed if related to LASIK or not. Until then it appears to be a media headline grab. Lets hope he share details so others can comment intelligently. Regards, Dave

By: Damian

Damian — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:55:58 +0000

Hi,
A Taiwanese surgeon named Ray Tsai, who is presented as a pioneer of LASIK in the papers, recently decided to no longer offer the treatment. He appears to have had a number of patients return to him after a decade with sudden vision loss. From what I can gather he is blaming it on inflammation. I’d love to hear your interpretation of this, and whether it has any nearing on LASEK or the new i-LASIK. At the moment, this news is the only thing holding me back from getting surgery.