WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Health Alert: Eye surgery 101

Health Alert: Eye surgery 101

(National) May 29, 2006 - People with vision problems have to rely on glasses or contact lenses to be able to see clearly, but laser vision correction can change all that. Believe it or not, lasik is now in its second decade, and tremendous advancements have been made.

Brooke Bugg is a school teacher who hated fussing with her glasses. She says, "Since I teach kindergarten, it's a very hands-on job. We're constantly getting into glue, glitter, paint, you know, that sort of thing."

About a year ago, she had surgery to correct her vision. She says, "It's been wonderful. I wish I would have done it sooner."

Brooke is one of the nearly two million people having eye surgery in the US each year.

Advanced technology has allowed for more treatment options than ever, even for those who haven't been able to have lasik surgery in the past. So how do you know which treatment might be right for you?

Dr. J. Bradley Randleman says, "We start by figuring out what is not working with your eyes. The common issues are nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, which means that your cornea's not normally shaped, and something called presbyopia, which is the loss of the ability to see up close as we age."

Then they look at your goals-trying to find out what you hope to achieve with surgery.

Dr. Randleman says, "One of the options is lasik, or in a broader term, eximer laser surgery-that is the laser that is used to reshape the cornea."

There's PRK, or surface oblation, which also reshapes the cornea. Dr. Randleman says, "Oftentimes, PRK is used for people who have thinner corneas or more abnormally shaped corneas."

If your eyes are too nearsighted for those procedures, you can consider intraocular surgery. "We actually implant a lens inside your eye to correct high amounts of nearsightedness," says Dr. Randleman. 

Other treatments exist, but these help the majority of people-like Brooke see clearly again.

There's a great deal of information on the internet on this topic, so be sure to do some research.

One website Doctor Randelman recommends is www.fda.gov. It includes information on the latest techniques and technology.

Posted 12:53pm by Bryce Mursch