LASIK failure toll can be high

Source: Chicago Tribune




Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-lasik_25feb25,1,2082427.story

When my spouse mentioned Lasik surgery several years ago after wearing glasses for virtually all her life I did a little research. The potential negative side effects were debilitating and permanent. Although I hate glasses (just starting to have to wear them regularly at age 50+) and can certainly understand the desire to be free of them, the thought of undergoing surgery to avoid wearing glasses when the risk is vision damage that cannot be remedied just doesn't make sense. I'm not sure all of the Lasik surgeons are entirely up front about the potential risks.

If I had undergone the surgery to avoid the inconvenience of glasses - particularly without having a clear understanding of the risks - and ended up being permanently unable to see clearly, I would most certainly be depressed/angry/ and perhaps a whole range of other emotions. They are just now starting to explore this?

crowd dammit. We have a lot of compadres here how thing that life should come with a 'quik fix' guarantee and consequenses and side effects be damned. Believe I know from experience.

as part of 'this crowd', i don't regret getting that procedure done, it's not about quick fix...it's about a lot of things, including the amount of money every year that has to be spent on new glasses, contacts, contact solution, etc...and wearing glasses since age 5 (for me) for everything, so yeah...having this surgery, was a freakin miracle

It worked out well for him.

Unfortunately, when it doesn't work - it REALLY doesn't work and there is no fix available. If you go into it with your eyes wide open, and decide it is worth the risk, more power to you. My real beef is with doctors who gloss over and/or don't discuss the risks with their patients. As part of my brief research when my spouse briefly contemplated it, there are some predictors which are related to the kind of failures which can't be fixed. No one I know who has had (or contemplated) the surgery was screened for these predictors.

...that advertises $XXX per eye (would you ever get only one done?). I paid top dollar for my opthamologist to do the procedure, and was the only patient in the facility when the work was done.

It's unbelievable, just being able to SEE without DOING anything.

and it sucks to now NOT be able to see anything without glasses after always having 20/20 vision (age-related). lasik can't cure that!

or wake up in the morning, and actually see the clock
even the colors outside were different...i'm still amazed, after almost 2 years without glasses

You'd think that having worn glasses since childhood, I would have gotten used to waking up in the mornings and seeing nothing but a blur, but it always made me wince just a tiny bit to be reminded of what the world looked like to my eyes without substantial correction. I knew there were risks to lasik, so it took me ages to work up the courage to finally undergo the procedure a few years ago, but I was one of the vast majority of patients who had a successful procedure without complications and I've been so glad I did it. Which is not to say I wouldn't feel differently about it had my outcome been less happy, but I think it's hard for people who haven't lived with bad eyesight to fully appreciate what a big deal it is to not need thick glasses to see anything other than a giant, grey blur. The liberating feeling it imparts is worth running some risk.

It has been a real challenge for me to adjust to wearing glasses - I am glad I had 50+ years without needing them to function. I would love to go back to not wearing them - and I don't have any particular opinion as to whether I look better in glasses or not. I hate the weight on the bridge of my nose, the glasses rim I see when I am wearing the glasses, etc.

I think it's more that folks are lured by the prospect of not having to wear glasses and aren't made aware of the potentially devastating consequences by their doctors,and don't do enough independent research to discover it on their own.

I was doing the research, in part, because of our experience with a couple of major missed diagnoses and treatment recommendations that were less than ideal. I don't take anything the doctor says as gospel truth unless I can confirm it with independent resesarch.

.. because I wanted to see and not be dependent
on glasses.

In fact, I still wear reading glasses and I think glasses
can be very attractive and cool.

My former eye doctor was a LASIK pioneer in Houston,
was well trained, and had good technology and machinery.

It worked fantastically well.. my vision is 20-15 and very
sharp.. and has been for nine plus years.

What I have to realize is that I still have near-sighted eyes;
it's my cornea that's been reshaped. No cure for the floaters,
in other words.. but a minor inconvenience compared to near
blindness.

Sue

it was still a surgical procedure. With these floaters,that came on suddenly in each eye years later...it's like looking thru a veil all the time. I wish they'd invent a procedure to get rid of the floaters.
I also need to find a way to get my sugar-count(diabetes) down so the blurriness clears up

IF a person is looking at several hundred dollars a year, it might make sense to have vision corrected "permanently".

Personally, my eyes are so bad I can't get LASIK-- and the only kinds of glasses I can wear have to have very small lenses, because otherwise it's like I'm walking through a fishbowl... and if I wear ANY glasses long enough, I get a severe headache. But I also have been pretty successful with contacts for several decades. Nevertheless, it is a serious enough condition that I'm legally blind without some sort of correction, many times over.

I don't trust it, either-- as long as what I've got works I'm not going to do some irreversible procedure; nevertheless, for lots of people, this is about WAY MORE than "vanity".

spent 10 minutes explaining why surgery was a bad idea. He said he didn't get it, neither did his wife or children. Dry eyes are apparently a big, debilitating, complication as well.

After all that, he said that if I insisted, there was only one doctor in the state who my doctor would trust to do it. Naturally, I just let the issue drop.

My glasses are fine thanks.

Luckily, there were no complications and I am much LESS depressed because I can actually see well for the first time in my life.

I did for more reasons than just shedding the look of glasses. I actually found glasses painful to wear, they hurt my nose just from the weight of them. Even with the super thin lenses the weight caused headaches.

And as an active "outdoors" type of person, I never have to worry about losing my glasses or contacts in a remote area or while traveling.

I can see better now than I ever could with glasses or contacts.

I had the operation done last September as a 40th birthday present to myself. My vision is not perfect -- I'm still a bit nearsighted -- but I've gone from about 20/960 to 20/40 in both eyes and the astigmatism in both eyes has gone away. On the rare occasions I need correction, I have some disposable "one day use" contacts which are sufficient.

I love it!

There are also some very cool and cheap reading
glasses out there, too. It's fun.

I had been warned about dry eyes and also the constant need to wear reading glasses. My results were far better than even the lasik surgeon had predicted. My vision went from 20/400 to 20/15 and I didn't need reading glasses (I was in my early 40s and the doctor said I would need glasses to read).

My only regret is that I didn't have the surgery done sooner.

laser eye surgery was rife with case after cse of failed procedures. She said she'd live with glasses or contacts forever rather than get eye surgery done.

thankfully for great insurance. We both are thrilled even though he had a longer recovery time from extreme eye dryness and I've still got a bit of halos at night. My brother had it done too and he's a doctor (he felt safe about it after a surgeon friend of his did it.) There are always risks with surgery, but this is one that I would recommend to anyone who can get it.

and his doctor was highly recommended and fabulous. His surgery went without a hitch, and it was a little more involved than normal Lasik.

However, I have a friend who had a botched Lasik, he went back for over 5+ surgeries to try to correct the damage.

Do the research. Find a great doctor that has done thousands of them. Never go for the cheap, $200. per eye ads. Worked great for me. Had a conservative doctor that didn't go for the "better than 20/20" promise. I went from coke bottle glasses to only wearing glasses at night for driving.

Cheap is the LAST thing to look for. They're your eyes, fergawdsakes.

I thought the cost might be prohibitive for me, but they had a great plan where you can spread the payment out over 18 months with no interest.

.. that can have problems.

Luckily for me I had a good eye doctor who knew
what he was doing, had good assistants and good
machinery.

It was expensive, $2000 per eye nine plus years ago.

And worth every penny.

There are a few main sources of problems and the incidence of them happening is not really correlated to price.

The first problem is that it is impossible to predict how the eye will heal on an individual basis. The structure of the eye deforms as it heals causing keratoconus. Have you ever seen a bubble in a piece of glass? Imagine that effect on the front of your eye.
There can be other unpredictable healing related issues, but that is probably the worst.

The second problem is poor screening. iA well paid doctor is as apt to mess this up as a doctor who charges a much more reasonable fee. My person opinion (I used to moderate a board on eye surgery, so this is based on anecdotal evidence) is more related to how the doctor evaluates success than anything. A lot of the problems are predictable, but the person still comes away with superior ability to read an eye chart. They may have dry eyes, of see halos or other effects at night (so they have to drive with an interior light on to contract the pupils) but they can read that chart. I think people in this category can fall either way, they either accept the problem and move on, or they get a sort of buyers remorse and fixate on the problem to the extent it devastates their life.
Imagine how irritated you'd be buying a car and having an annoying problem that can't be fixed. Then figure you got that with your eyes.

Finally, I don't think all the long term data is in yet. When you have LASIK you fundamentally alter the structure of the eye in a way that some doctors are concerned will weaken it. As we age our interocular pressure usually increases and there is a worry that over decades, there maay be a problem with keratoconus developing as deformation of the shape of the eye develops. Visualize an inner tube with a weak spot.

You shaving off the front of the eye with a plane, then burn off tissue underneath the shaved piece. They then lay the shaved piece back down over the burnt off area.
You just have to expect there are going to be issues.

I've been considering lasik. I've worn glasses since I was eight for myopia. Yeah, coke bottles. Even with the newest technology, they are still heavy on my nose and a pain to deal with. Then if my kid accidentally hits me in the face (he's autistic, and accidents happen more frequently), I'm messed up and my glasses get bent up, etc.

if you aren't prepared for a better than 2 percent chance of having a problem really dislike...

There used to be a website called "surgicaleyes.com" where you can read some of the issues people have had. Most people are very happy, but when they aren't, they really aren't.

more updates in the procedure.

(Not THAT kind of conservative.)

...But eye surgery involving a laser ranks up there with penis surgery involving a cheese-grater and an icepick. :wow:


I'm glad it works for some, but I'm not going to volunteer. :hide:

It's a developing procedure still in its infancy.

We still do not know the long term effects.

urologist and a surgeon, his sister is an ophthalmologist and when he asked her advice she said "no" as he relies on his vision for his job and expertise, the risks are too high.

If he won't have it done and neither will his sister (both board certified BTW), I think I'll follow their lead.

He said, "When you see me strapped to that table, then you can assume it is a safe procedure. Before that, I wouldn't take the risk. You only have two eyes. Your eyes work fine now with correction."

I had it done when I was in my mid sixties. I had worn glasses since second grade and contact lenses since my late thirties. I love my vision now. After I had it done I could see when I snorkeled and no longer steamed up in the winter. It was a definant comfort issue as no more pieces of plastic in my eyes. When I was hospitalized for an extensive time I could see and didn't have to fuss with lenses or glasses. Just as a matter of interest, my other best surgery was my breast reduction.

that the armed services in Iraq perform this surgery routinely on the troops. I wonder how that's working out.

properly it's going to cost a lot more the $500 per eye.

Having said that i'll stick with glasses, i can see and i have an accessory.

I paid $600 per eye "for the surgery." I also paid $250 per eye as a service fee for the surgery room (basically, the cost that the hospital charged my eye doctor to use their facilities) and a flat-rate $1650 for pre-op and a year of aftercare. Had I needed follow-up surgery, my only additional cost would have been the surgery room service fee.

I expect that while the money paid "for the surgery" is less, they more than make it up by increasing other costs.


Added: My surgeon was the same eye doctor I've been seeing for years, and he was one of the first to do LASIK in the Seattle area. The surgery was at my instigation; he never suggested it to me and does it only for existing patients, not as a sideline. I am confident that what he charged is an accurate reflection of costs and does not reflect the profit motive that you find with these eye surgery clinics.

.. it worked like a charm. That was about
nine or ten years ago.

My nearsightedness is completely corrected...
and I'm so pleased.

dry eyes can be very bad.

Keep in mind that the
flap never heals.

She's been 100% blind for over fifteen years because of it.

I don't know if I could handle waking up to absolute darkness. I don't know how ANYBODY could face such a thing.

....but have decided to not under any circumstances get this kind of surgery. As I have grown older, my near-sightedness has resolved itself from 20/200 in both eyes to 20/30 in my right eye and 20/40 in my left eye. The best part? Except for driving at night, watching a TV which is at a distance and going to the movies, I do not have to use glasses. I read, do close needle work, use the computer, etc., without glasses and most the the time I never need glasses for any reason. So I stopped wearing the contacts and have one pair of distance glasses I use for those three activities.

The problem I have have seen is that people who are nearsighted and have excellent close up vision do not understand that with this type of surgery what the trade off is becomes excellent distance vision and a loss of the excellent or good close up vision. When I wore contacts for a distance correction, I needed about 4 different types of glasses for close up and closer vision.

No way am I gonna give up my perfect close up sight to be able to not have to put on distance glasses at the movies or to drive at night.

Soooooooo....please understand what the hell you are doing BEFORE you do something as stupid as I could have done. Sad for her, but lucky for me, a gal pal of mine who had slightly worse distance vision than I do had this done...and now she has all sorts of glasses with her for her close up and closer vision needs. Before her experience, I had the mistaken impression that lasix could make my eyes PERFECT for distance and would have NO impact on my close up abilities to see. That is NOT the way it works...and I frankly would rather have what I have now than take any risks on top of losing what I do have.

Ummmmmmm.....no fucking thanks to lasix surgery. The trade off of not having to use glasses in a few isolated instances versus not being able to see at all if something goes wrong and for sure losing my excellent close up vision? No a hard choice at all! No way to this risky cosmetic surgery!

From a common sense point of view, I would think that folks would be reluctant to get it, given that something could go wrong, as with any elective surgery.

I think much of it has to do with how bad your vision is. I have 20/40 vision in one eye, 20/80 in the other. I could drive without them (though I barely fail the DMV test that determines this--though of course I don't drive uncorrected). My vision is corrected to 20/15 with glasses. My prescription hardly changes at all from year to year, and I can wear the glasses I wore years ago if need be. So, for me, undergoing the risks of LASIK does not make a lot of sense. I don't see wearing glasses as a major inconvenience. It's a lot less radical fix for my minor vision problem than getting my corneas sliced off, frozen, trimmed to size with a laser and put back on. (Or however it is that they do it.)

That being said, I think that for many people who have severe vision problems, i.e. 20/200 vision or astigmatism, undergoing these risks makes a lot of sense. LASIK isn't a cure-all, and I don't think it makes sense for people with mild myopia such as myself, but if you have vision problems that severely limit your quality of life, then by all means you ought to do you homework, find a good doctor, and go for it.

Even when it works it can cause depression. Here's how.

Person wears glasses and suffers social consequences in school. They get the miricle cure, no more glasses, they thing, means they will be loved. But then they learn that people are just cruel in general, and that there is still no love. Or that the social shunning has them still at a disadvantage, thus even with the glasses gone, they are still "losers."

Ergo, Depression.

My vision was so bad that when I took my glasses off I couldn't see anything but blurs. It was sort of relaxing to be able to basically turn off my vision and get ready to go to sleep. Can't do that anymore unless I shut my eyes. And even the blackness seems clearer than it did.

and if correct, should be observable after weight-loss surgery, or any sort of cosmetic surgery that substantially changes a person's appearance. Have you tried to research it?

I got RK done back in late 1983, and really didn't have any adjustment problems. I had correction-free vision for about seventeen years, then my arms "got shorter" so to speak. I needed reading glasses, which later evolved into full-time bifocals.

But I enjoyed the time I had glasses-free, and considered the $2,000 it cost to be money well-spent.

I have one lazy eye that is considered to be "unrecoverable" (i.e. I will never be able to see properly through it), and one "good" eye that is very nearsighted and astigmatic. So I wear glasses.

Even if the risk of something going wrong is tiny, it's a risk I cannot accept. So I wear glasses for life.

Since she's disabled, she couldn't hold still for the surgery anyway. The replacement of her deformed lens (just like cataract surgery) under general anesthesia would bring her out of the legally blind category, and could only help her other medical problems.

So I'm saving my pennies and trying to deal with her other issues so that she's in shape for it when and if we get that far.

one of the two, his eye is so fucked up, his iris stopped functioning. Needless to say, it lead to a long term law suit.

I will wear glasses to the day I die. I don't want anyone coming anywhere near my eyes with anything that is 1) pointy 2) laser like 3) a finger.

Pointy laser fingers are my biggest fear.

Of all the things I have done for myself, having the Lasik surgery was far and away the greatest thing I have ever done.

that didn't work out too well. I'm having surgery to try to reshape the sucker next month.

My mother went blind from macular degeneration. She was suicidal for a long time until she got used to the idea. I don't think the depression lifted until we got her on enough drugs to make the entire state of Florida giggle. She told me later that going blind was the worst thing that could ever happen to a person but that being blind was just a nuisance.

I just wish they'd stop happy talking these Lasik commercials. Some people do have poor outcomes. Some are permanently unable to drive after dark, really cramps a social life in your 20s. Some never get over the discomfort. If people didn't have such incredibly high expectations going into the surgery, perhaps the depression wouldn't be so deep if the outcome is less than hoped for.

My doc has assured me that this next surgery, which will be done with a diamond cutting blade, is less invasive than Lasik. I have assured him that he will need to tie me to the chair.

A friend of mine had problems for months and still has to wear glasses.

As one who is too squeamish to wear contacts, no way would I get LASIK.

One of the side effects is extremely dry eyes, especially in people who, like me, already have a tendency toward dry eyes. That would drive me batty!

I've worn glasses for over 40 years, but it's my only pair of eyes, and wearing glasses just isn't that big a deal to me. Most of the people I've know who had it done had vision that was much worse than mine and it was a choice of surgery or "coke bottle" glasses with a very limited field of vision. I also had one friend who was very near-sighted in one eye and very far-sighted in the other. Her glasses made one eye look smaller and one much bigger. I could understand why she got the surgery and she was very happy with it.

I can't see a foot in front of me without my second set of eyes on, so I was looking to get my eyes zapped. I was considering it until reports of depression as a side effect came out. I'm already suffering from depression, so I don't need to go over the edge just for the sake of vanity. What the hell is the use of seeing clearly only to see where you are going to kill yourself? I'll keep my glasses, thank you.

I'm sure problems are remote, but contact lenses are fine with me at the moment.

Had the procedure done 3/30/05 at age 26, cost of $2800 through flex-spending account. It took a few minutes, absolutely painless.

My side effects have been greater sensitivity to light, however I have no regrets after being four-eyed for 13 years. Now obviously its only been 3 years, so there's the possibility of future havocs....my fingers are sufficiently crossed.

who advertise on the back of a bus.
I would not trust my eyes to "Lasik".

There are books and videos about it. They say they can really improve poor eyesight.

Looking over the books, it looks to me as if someone would have to be really dedicated and stay with it to get any results (if it works).

If anyone has tried this, please share your experience.