HealthFirst-Lasik precautions

UNDATED (WJRT) (WJRT) -- (11/27/06)-- You may be ready to trade in your glasses or contacts for laser eye surgery, but the Lasik procedure may actually hurt more than help.

HealthFirst reporter Leslie LoBue says that most  people have great results, but some have a disease that gets worse with Lasik.

A small percentage of people - about one in 2,000 - have the eye disease and don't even realize it.

There is now a high-tech way to find out before you try Lasik.

In the blink of an eye Kristin Kuntz discovers Lasik surgery is no longer an option.  "That's when he said, 'you know what? I don't think you can have Lasik.'"

Kristin's eyes look normal, but pictures from an orbscan machine show a thin, irregular cornea. With Lasik, which weakens the cornea, Kristin could have developed keratoconus, which causes bulging of the eye and distorted vision.

"There is some chance with Lasik that that might progress faster or progress when it might not have progressed had we not done surgery," explained Dr. David Rex Hamilton.

With a puff of air the ocular response analyzer measures corneal strength. Doctors can now use it with the orbscan to red-flag patients wanting Lasik.

Until now, doctors relied on a clinical exam, which rarely caught the disease in its early stage.

"He would have just done Lasik, and that would have been it. And if I would have had a problem, I wouldn't have obviously found out until afterwards," Kuntz said.

Rather than Lasik, Kristin chose PRK, where the outer cornea layer is removed instead of folded back. She missed four days of work but is convinced she made an eye saving

Orbscan is available all over the place, but the actual ocular response analyzer is new. There are only about 60 machines in the country.

For more information:

Grand Blanc Eyes
11225 S Saginaw St # 10
Grand Blanc, MI 48439
(810) 694-3937

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•