sábado, 24 de julio de 2010

What You Need To Know To Avoid Laser Eye Surgery Risk

Avoiding laser eye surgery risk starts with you. Forget about the actual procedure itself; you still have to make it to the operating table and that means going through a rigorous pre-screening session.
Two of the most important factors in cutting down the risk from laser eye surgery are you and obviously your surgeon.
Find A Skilled Surgeon
It goes without saying that finding a skilled surgeon is paramount to a successful procedure. Now most laser eye surgeons are skilled and you won’t have any problems in this regard if you observe a couple of very important points:
1. Once you meet your surgeon and set up an appointment the first thing you must know is that a pre-screening session should be arranged. If the surgeon is keen to get you straight onto the operating table as soon as they can without examining you then it might be time to put the running shoes on and leave immediately.
2. Always ask for the surgeon’s credentials. Ask for some examples of their work and how long they have been practicing their craft.
The pre-screening phase is so important. Many people think that once they’ve decided laser eye surgery is a good idea that they simply present themselves and they’re good to go. Not so.
It’s pretty much a case of earning the right to have the procedure and this is one the pre-screening process is in place – to determine whether you are a good candidate and not place you under a risky situation.
Your Role
This is vital. Just because you will undergo an examination doesn’t mean it should be left up to your surgeon to find any anomalies.
The condition of your health is one of the vital aspects going into any type of surgery. If you have a condition then let your doctor know. Don’t hold anything back. The more you can tell them about your health the less risk you will put yourself at if you’re accepted as a patient.
Pregnant women in particular and people with high blood pressure need to make their doctor aware of their condition.
Now don’t be disappointed if you don’t qualify for the initial procedure because you may well be suitable for other eye surgery. It’s all a matter of reducing the chances of complications.
The avoidance of Laser eye surgery risk definitely begins with you so don’t be tempted to hide anything and then if something goes wrong, blame the surgeon.

Beware The Side Effects Of Laser Eye Surgery

While laser eye surgery has been a wonderful innovation for those with vision problems, one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that because it is a surgical procedure, there are still risks involved.
Going into any surgical procedure starry-eyed should only be done after an exhaustive screening process. This will involve consultation with your surgeon about the side effects of laser eye surgery and how they could effect you.
In this article, we’ll examine what some of those side effects are and while the risks are extremely low, it’s wise to at least know they exist.
Side Effects Of Laser Eye Surgery
There is always the possibility of delayed healing and infection. The percentages are extremely low; just 0.1% of patients could expect this complication. In the majority of cases, there are no long term complications only some discomfort experienced becuase of the longer healing delay.
One of the more common side effects of laser treatment is what’s known as over or under correction. The resultant effect is a patient may need to continue wearing their contacts after surgery or even have further surgery. Again, the long term effects are considered negligible.
Corneal Haze
Corneal haze is not usually a major problem. It’s incidence is extremely low in Lasik or Photorefractive Keratectomy procedures however, the risk is always there that abundant haze could hamper a person’s vision. This is one of the things your surgeon will discuss with you yet there is no major effect on your overall vision. It’s considered as part of the recovery process.
One of the more frustrating side effects of laser eye surgery is post surgical regression. Simply put, it means a person’s eye or eyes can return to the state they were in prior to surgery.
This means the procedure could have been a waste of time and you’ll need to discuss the ramifications with your surgery. Can they guarantee against this happening and will another surgical procedure be required. These are just some of the questions you should ask during the consultation.
The Halo
This can effect both Lasik or Photorefractive Keratectomy(PRK) patients and can be a serious problem. It’s particularly noticeable in low light conditions and occurs when another faded image is noticeable as the pupil enlarges. This can be a real problem for people driving at night.
These are just some of the side effects of laser eye surgery and while they are not life threatening, they need to be considered when consulting with your surgeon.

Laser Eye Surgery in Uk: Ultralase ? an Overview

Ultralase is the leading provider of LASIK & Wavefront treatment in United Kingdom. At the first time established in UK (January 1991), it was a sister clinic to the Toronto Facility (Canada) and opened at Clatterbridge Hospital, Wirral. This clinic having specialization in PRK (Photo-Refractive Ceratectomy; first type of laser eye surgery).

LASIK (LASer In-situ Keratomileusis) technique was first introduced at Ultralase in 1995. Beside that Ultralase also extending its treatment to thousands of patients suffering from long-sightedness, astigmatism and more extreme short-sightedness.

Untill 2002, Ultralase had opened many clinics around the country which was in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Chelmsford, Guildford, Leeds City Centre, London (Hammersmith and Tottenham Court Road), Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and St Albans. An additional two clinics was built at Reading, in 2005 & Glasgow by the end of 2006.

Ultralase had gained many recognition and achievement which was:

How To Make Laser Eye Surgery Cost Work For You

Laser eye surgery cost varies from clinic to clinic and country to country with the one constant being that patients are generally quoted per eye. If you have been tempted to “take the plunge” but are not sure of the cost involved, then it’s advisable to get a wide cross-section of quotes from different providers.

Average Eye Surgery Costs

Laser eye surgery cost has risen steadily during the past four years. From an average cost of $1500 in 2002, prices now hover around the $2000 mark and beyond. If you have noticed cheaper quotes, under $1000, then it would be wise to check the fine print before you sign on the dotted line. Only a small percentage of providers are offering these low cost prices and in most cases, there are hidden costs or factors involved.

Costs for some of the common eye surgery procedures have risen considerably in the last few years. Common procedures such as corneal inserts and PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy) will set you back as much as $4000 and $2000 respectively depending on the circumstances.

What To Be Wary Of

Be wary of advertisements offering low cost eye surgery. Generally, this is a sales tactic to attract patients who then have to satisfy certain terms and conditions to qualify for the price on offer. If you answer one of these advertisements make sure you ask questions such as:

viernes, 23 de julio de 2010

Corrective Laser Eye Surgery ? Advances in Lasik Eye Surgery Procedures

In order to correct vision, surgeons use lasers to reshape the cornea by intervening on the tissues on the underlying or stromal layer. The medicine currently comprises two very effective types of laser eye surgery: the Photo Refractive Keratectomy (PRK) and the Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK).

In Photo Refractive Keratectomy, the doctor manually scrapes away the cornea and corrects the vision using an excimer laser. Unfortunately the epithelium layer will grow back in time, not to mention that the recovery period is longer than with LASIK.

On the other side, PRK procedure involves fewer risks because the surgeon doesn’t cut the cornea.

LASEK (Laser Assisted Sub-Epithelial Keratomileus) is the new and improved PRK and uses a solution with alcohol to soften the area before removing the epithelium. After the excimer laser reshapes the stroma, the surgeon replaces the epithelium. With LASEK the healing process is shorter than with PRK.

Next, LASEK developed into Epi-LASEK. The doctor preserves a living layer of the epithelium using a separator and after the vision is corrected with excimer laser, the layer is replaced. The healing process is even shorter now.

LASIK or Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis cuts the cornea flap with a microkeratome metal blade, reshapes the eye with an excimer laser and repositions the flap. This procedure corrects vision right away and the patient will only experience some blurriness during the next 24-hours.

Custom Vue LASIK is pretty much the same thing as LASIK but it uses Wavefront software. The technology used is 25% more accurate than any standard method and is used to map the optical system and to guide the laser to change the stroma.

With Custom Intra LASIKthe flap is made using a femtosecond Intralase laser. Then with the help of Wavefront guidance the excimer laser corrects the visual errors.

According to the experts this is the most advanced procedure for corneal flap creation but unfortunately it is also the most expensive one.

Some Choosing Eye Braces Over Laser Eye Surgery

Are you tired of wearing glasses but too afraid to have laser eye surgery? Eye braces may be just the thing you’ve been waiting for.

A long time ago, back in the 1960′s, two California doctors when getting feedback from their patients who wore contact lenses, kept hearing the same type of story over and over again. Many times their patients would leave their home, drive to work and then halfway through the day notice that they were not wearing their contact lenses. And they were seeing perfectly well. It appeared that the constant wearing of the contact caused a gradual reshaping of their cornea, improving their ability to see. This chance discovery eventually led to experimentations and studies on shaping the eyes using contact lenses.

Corrective eye braces or CRT (Corneal Refractive Therapy) lenses as they are formally known, are hard contact lenses that act much like a retainer or braces do on your teeth. You put them on at night just before you go to bed. During the night, while you sleep, they reshape the cornea of your eye. When you wake up in the morning, your blurred vision is gone. You can see the pictures on your wall, the buttons on your clothes, and the alarm clock on your dresser. You have 20/20 vision.

Unlike laser eye surgery, the changes are not permanent. The changes to the cornea will last only a day on some people. On others, it has lasted up to a week.

So who are the most likely candidates for these eye braces?

Young teenagers for one. Many good eye surgeons will not operate on a teenager or a person under 18 or 21 because the body, including the eyes. may still be growing and changing. At those ages, they doctor may legitimately determine that the risk is not worth it and rule out corrective eye surgery altogether. In this case, eye braces, may be a good alternative.

The eyes are one of our most important senses and many people are leery of making any type of permanent change to them. Add to that the growing number of malpractice lawsuits involving refractive surgery, and some people, especially those already wary of surgical operations, begin to look for alternative ways of improving their vision. For them, eye braces are a good compromise between permanent contact lenses and laser eye surgery.

Those looking for a bargain will also like eye braces. The cost of CRT lenses is much less than the cost of laser eye surgery.

The news is not all good, however. The braces have to be hard, in order to reshape the cornea. This can make them uncomfortable to wear. And although most people will get used to them, some find they can’t adjust.

Also, although relatively infrequent, the wearing of contact lenses, does increase the risk of microbial infections of the eye.

And thirdly, there have been no long term studies of the effect of wearing eye braces on a nightly basis for an extended period of time.

So if you want CRT lenses how do you get them? You can’t just go into an eye doctor’s office and order them. A CRT lens has to be prescribed by a doctor who has been certified in CRT lenses.

Laser Eye Surgery: What Happens And Why

Laser eye surgery often called lasik eye surgery, is a procedure that allows your eye sight to be corrected. There are actually many different types of this surgery and the equipment often changes from one doctor to the next. What the overall benefit is, though, is simple. By adjusting the shape of your cornea, you can improve your eye sight considerably. Like any other surgery, there are risks involved. But, the benefits are there for most that have laser eye surgery.
The cornea of your eye is the film of tissue that covers your pupil. In a normal eye with no vision problems, it has a very specific shape that is even and rounded. In an individual that has near sightedness or far sightedness, the cornea is misshapen to some degree. By bowing out or changing shape in just a bit or a lot of area, the cornea distorts your vision, which leaves you with problems like not being able to see things that are far away or being unable to see things up close.
With the help of laser eye surgery, though, this can be changed. The doctor will remove part of the cornea from your eye on only three sides, creating a flap. From here, he will use a high powered laser to change the shape of the stroma, which is the tissue that lies under the cornea that’s been removed. By shaving that to the desired level, he improves your vision. When the cornea lays back over the eye, it now lays there correctly, with the right curve which ultimately improves your vision.
The laser eye surgery procedure is one that should be carefully considered because there are some risks. But, if the procedure goes correctly, within some time after healing has been complete, your eyes can actually improve in vision. Some individuals gain excellent eye sight. Others improve. Talk to your doctor about the benefits that can come from your improvements.