Latest in LASIK

Reported January 2007

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- In just a few minutes ... LASIK eye surgery has Kelli Tette, saying goodbye to glasses! "I can see so much better than I ever did even with my glasses or contacts on," she says.

It's a popular comment from many patients. But sometimes eye imperfections cause slightly farsighted or nearsighted vision even after surgery. Now, a new system used with LASIK creates better results.

"The University of Rochester Nomogram is a system that takes into account these subtler irregularities of vision and corrects them out," Scott MacRae, M.D., an ophthalmologist at University of Rochester in N.Y., tells Ivanhoe.

Ophthalmologists say 20 percent of patients are still slightly farsighted after surgery. Using the new system, that number drops to 2 percent.

Dr. MacRae says, "The biggest benefit to patients with the Nomogram is they're less likely to need a retreatment after the procedure."

Patients undergo a test to find flaws within the eyes. That information is fed into the new system using computers and then helps control and adjust the laser beam during surgery to fix imperfections for a picture-perfect result.

"It saves us time. It saves the patient time," Dr. MacRae says. "But more importantly, the patients see well right from the start."

The system caught Tette's eye defects before surgery. "It's definitely changed my life," she says. And today, Tette sees better than 20/20 at about 20/15.

Generally, anyone with advanced rheumatoid arthritis, keratoconus, or active herpes simplex of the cornea may not be good candidates for LASIK.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Scott MacRae M.D.
Department of Ophthalmology
University of Rochester
100 Meridian Ctr. #125
Rochester, NY 14618
(585) 273-2020
Scott_MacRae@URMC.Rochester.edu

Ben Stein
American Institute of Physics
(for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine)
(301) 209-3088
bstein@aip.org

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