Doctors cut repeat LASIK visits dr...( some extent; while most people dont not...),Health

some extent; while most people dont notice them, they hurt our quality of vision in subtle ways. Since Williams' discovery, several companies have introduced technology that makes possible a technique known as customized ablation, a form of LASIK that corrects these imperfections, bringing about a super-crisp quality of eyesight. Beyond making vision on the order of 20/15 or 20/16 possible or even commonplace in some groups of patients, the technology also increases the eyes ability to see in situations where there is low light or little contrast.

MacRae and Venkiteshwar were surprised to find that fixing these subtle imperfections affects vision in unexpected ways. They found that some of the improvements make an eye undergoing LASIK more prone to becoming slightly farsighted in some patients, and slightly nearsighted in a few patients. Theyve found the relationship in at least three different laser systems used in LASIK procedures.

"This is not something anyone would have predicted," said MacRae, who is a professor of Ophthalmology and of Visual Science. "When you fix these flaws, it can affect vision in ways that were previously unpredictable."

For instance, the team found that treating coma a subtle imperfection where a point of light looks like it has the tale of a comet affects a patients astigmatism as well as his or her degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness. Other common flaws that can now be fixed, but which also affect a persons vision more broadly, include spherical aberration, where a point of light appears to have several rings of light around it; trefoil, where a point of light seems to be surrounded by three other points; and others such as secondary astigmatism, quadrafoil and pentafoil.

MacRae credits the new formula, part of a procedure he calls second-generation customized ablation, with slashing the need for repeat treatments in patients from about 8 percent to 3 percent.

The latest results are part of an ongoin
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Contact: Tom Rickey
tom_rickey@urmc.rochester.edu
585-275-7954
University of Rochester Medical Center
18-Sep-2006

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