Lawsuit filed over LASIK surgery

"According to the suit, Nordstrom suffered severe and permanent damage in both eyes, further irritation from a pre-existing dry eye condition and medical expenses.

The suit claims Virdi recommended laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, or LASIK, surgery for Nordstrom without warning him that the configuration of his corneas did not make him a good candidate for the surgery and that the surgery could worsen his borderline normal dry-eye condition.

Virdi failed to receive written informed consent from Nordstrom concerning the risks and potential complications that could arise, the suit adds.

The doctor also failed to properly maintain the laser, the suit further alleges.

Virdi Eye Clinic was closed Friday. A message was left through an answering service, but efforts to reach someone for comment were unsuccessful.

The Nordstroms are being represented by the law firm of Katz, Huntoon and Fieweger of Moline, and seek more than $50,000 in damages."

Eye Surgeon At Dublin Clinic Faced Misconduct Charge In The U.K.

"Ballsbridge,Dublin --Dr. Anupam Chatterjee was the subject of a British General Medical Council (GMC) fitness to practice hearing in 2003 after a patient on whom he performed Laser Surgery accused the Doctor of permanently damaging his sight.

The Manchester-based Doctor was cleared of the charge but admitted during the hearing that he had gone against guidelines warning Doctors not to operate on both eyes on the same day.

The guideline was intended to make sure that any potential damage suffered by patients with complications would be limited to only one eye.

After his eyes were left permanently damaged, Manchester lawyer Paul Burton complained to the GMC saying he had not been warned of the potential risk. 'He did not discuss any of the risks associated with the operation and he treated both eyes at once. The recommendation is to treat one and wait at least a month before treating the other,' he told the hearing. As a result of his surgery Mr Burton has been left in frequent pain with 'starburst and halo effects' and blurred vision in each eye."

Before You Have Laser Eye Surgery

"Do not choose a clinic or surgeon solely on cost. Find out:
1. Who will be doing your surgery and ask to have a consultation with this surgeon both in advance of and after the treatment.
2. Whether the clinic or hospital adheres to the Royal College of Ophthalmologists' guidelines for surgery. If not, stay away.
3. How many Lasik operations the surgeon has performed, how long he has been doing this work and what his qualifications are.
4. About the surgeon's re-treatment rate. Three per cent is low; 10 per cent high.
5. About infection rates.
6. What kind of vision you can expect after surgery. Some surgeons have higher overall success rates: at least 85 per cent of patients should have 'perfect' unaided vision after Lasik.
7. What proportion of patients end up with poorer vision - even when wearing glasses - than they started with.
8. How common serious complications such as ectasia are."

Is the beam in your eye safe?

"Around 100,000 laser eye surgery procedures are carried out annually in Britain, making it the most common eye operation after cataracts. The vast majority of patients now opt for Lasik (laser assisted in situ keratomileusis) which involves cutting a thin flap in the cornea and removing a small amount of tissue underneath with a laser in order to reshape the eye and improve focusing.
'Laser refractive surgery has developed almost beyond recognition and we can now eliminate many of the complications that used to be common,' says David Gartry, consultant corneal surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital, who in 1989 performed the first laser procedure for myopia in the UK.
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'It has to be a very safe procedure because the eyes we are operating on are normal and healthy: we are not treating disease.'
Although well over 90 per cent of patients are delighted with the results of their treatment, complications can occur. According to Nice, about six Lasik patients in 1,000 will have worse vision than before: patients with mild short-sight do better than those with severe problems.
Between one and 10 per cent will have to have the treatment repeated and a small number will develop an infection - though infection rates are lower than with contacts - or a complication that results in damage requiring a corneal transplant.

Claims against laser eye surgeons account for one in three of all ophthalmology cases dealt with by the Medical Defence Union.
"On average, the cost of litigation against laser eye surgeons is triple that of ophthalmic surgeons who do not carry out laser eye work," says Dr Karen Roberts, MDU clinical risk manager. "Patient dissatisfaction with vision post-operatively and corneal scarring are the most common reasons."
There is concern that some clinics play down the potential problems to attract clients. Virtually all laser eye surgery is carried out privately and mostly in clinics competing mainly on price. Charges range from £700 an eye for basic Lasik at some chains, to more than £2,000 an eye for more sophisticated techniques in hospitals."

Epi-Lasik | PRK | Lasek | Epi-Lasek | Laser Eye Surgery

"Epi-LASIK is a procedure that has evolved from PRK and LASEK. The procedure involves the use of a microkeratome, similar to that used in Traditional LASIK, however it does not cut the cornea, instead separating the epithelial layer. The layer is preserved and replaced following the reshaping of the cornea using the excimer laser. Unlike LASEK which uses alcohol to separate the epithelium and in the process can kill epithelial cells, Epi-LASIK permits the cells to live and continue to survive following replacement.
Epi-LASIK like PRK and LASEK is still as surface ablation procedure and to date, no useful scientific randomized controlled study has been performed to investigate whether this new method leads to the same problems during the healing process such as scarring and regression (reappearance of the refractive error)."

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) Laser Vision Correction Surgery

"PRK or photorefractive keratectomy used to be the most common laser eye surgery procedure until Lasik came along. LASEK is a derivative of PRK whereby the top layer of the cornea, the epithelium is loosened with 20% alcohol. This removed and then replaced. The thinking is that LASEK is less painful than PRK and less likely to produce long term haze. This has not been found to be true, however the procedure is popular especially in centres on the high street.
Both PRK and LASEK are more painful than LASIK or IntraLASIK (as performed at Centre for Sight) and visual recovery can take a few days to a week compared with usually the following day with IntraLASIK."

Zyoptix, wavefront - How it works?

"Zyoptix: How it Works

Orbscan tomography

The Zyoptix customised treatment uses a combination of Wavefront (acquired from the Zywave) and 3-Dimensional Topography from the Orbscan IIz to plan a treatment tailor made to suit you. The planning is conducted through the Zyoptix Treatment Planner and your surgeon evaluates all options and makes the best decision for your eyes.

The treatment profile is then delivered by the Bausch and Lomb Z100 Laser using a combination of 2mm and 1mm spots. All this is accurately placed on the cornea under a Lasik flap (which at centre for Sight is performed using Intralase). Accuracy is ensured by the advanced iris recognition and rapid response tracker."

What is IntraLasik, laser eye surgery? - Centre for Sight

"What is IntraLASIK ?

IntraLASIK is a combination of two words : The' Intra' component denotes our use of the INTRALASE Femtosecond laser and LASIK is an abbreviated term for 'Laser Assisted In situ KERATOMILEUSIS'.

Conventional LASIK as practiced in most laser vision centres as a first step, uses a device called a keratome that houses a BLADE to make a flap on the cornea. The flap is lifted and the reshaping of the eye is then accomplished.

With IntraLASIK, the first step of cutting the flap is accomplished using a highly precise Laser - the INTRALASE Femtosecond Laser. This silent laser separates a layer on the cornea and converts this into a flap. The flap is lifted and the laser reshaping with the Excimer laser is accomplished as it is with Traditional Lasik and the flap is replaced. So with IntraLASIK TWO lasers are used - the IntraLASE to create the flap precisely and the other (Bausch and Lomb Z100) to reshape the cornea."