20/20 Vision in the Blink of An Eye
April 24, 2008— -- The prospect of perfect vision in the blink of an eye has attracted thousands of patients to Dr. Roy Rubinfeld's office for Lasik surgery. The vast majority of them, Rubinfeld said, walk away happy.
"There is no foolproof medication, no foolproof procedure," said Rubinfeld, who himself had Lasik surgery in 1995. "But the safety profile of this procedure, in my medical experience over a long period of time, has been unparalleled."
To be sure, Lasik is one of the world's most popular elective surgeries. About 28.3 million people worldwide have decided to undergo the surgery since the mid-'90s to improve their sight. Lasik doctors said complications from the eye surgery are rare, and a study published in January's American Journal of Ophthalmology showed that the benefits of Lasik can last a decade.
But not everyone sings the praises of Lasik.
Lauranell Burch is one patient who is not happy with the results.
While working at Duke University, Burch received a mailing to employees that touted the benefits of the university's laser eye surgery. A senior medical researcher, Burch did her homework before undergoing the Lasik procedure, which stands for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, in March 2004. She read the clinical trials with interest and combed the Internet for details. Still, she said, she didn't get the whole story.
"No one has received full-informed consent for Lasik," Burch said. "If anyone knew what this procedure really does to their eyes, they wouldn't have it."
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration will hear from patients to learn more about their experiences. After receiving reports of double vision, night blindness, dry eye and halos, the FDA is now preparing a nationwide study with the National Eye Institute, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the American Academy of Opthalmology to measure how the 700,000 patients who undergo Lasik each year in the United States fare after the surgery.
Daniel Schultz, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said today that the clinical study will help get a large, reliable data set that documents quality of life for Lasik patients. Though the FDA has data from when the laser devices went to market, there is no post-market data on how the people who used them have fared.
