sha 0 Report post Posted August 3, 2002 Lasik and Indians... The Times of India Online Printed from timesofindia.indiatimes.com > Health/Science Laser surgery not for Indian eyes KALPANA JAIN TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, AUGUST 01, 2002 9:08:29 PM ] NEW DELHI: Want to get rid of those unwanted glasses with laser surgery? You better make sure you are up to it. Scientists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) — who are getting patients with severe complications following this surgery — say the thinness of Indian corneas means those who go in for laser surgery, also known as lasik, without proper screening run the risk of permanent damage to their eyes. Lasik surgery, used for correcting common vision defects, involves slicing off a part of the clear covering over the front of the eye called the cornea. For complete correction, the size of the cornea to be cut has to be accurate while leaving enough of it for a normal functioning eye. But the Indian eye is different from the ‘Western’ eye, found researchers at AIIMS, who checked 1,069 eyes for corneal thickness after noticing the large number of complications. "Slicing a big piece of the cornea may lead to the cornea becoming very weak and bring about complications after some time," says professor at the Rajendra Prasad Institute for Ophthalmic Sciences, Dr R B Vajpayee, who led the research. Young patients are now landing up with complications of bulging of a weak cornea, which leads to high myopia. Some of these patients may eventually lose their vision too, for which the only option is corneal grafting, adds Vajpayee. These effects, he says, may not be apparent soon after surgery but may take as long as five years to appear. Vajpayee says he saw three patients with these complications last year. "This by itself is a large number. But the actual number may be much more," he adds. In fact, different units at AIIMS are reporting the same problem. For instance, Dr Atul Kumar, an expert on retinas, has seen two patients with retinal detachments as well following the surgery. "This is the beginning. We may see a large number of patients after ten years or so," said another researcher at AIIMS, Dr J S Titiyal. People need to know that not everyone can be eligible for this surgery, he adds. "Our refusal rate at AIIMS is 20 to 30 per cent," says Vajpayee. But it’s possible that after being refused at AIIMS these patients go to a private establishment to get the surgery done. "It is certainly not as safe as it is made out to be for Indian patients," says Vajpayee. The average size of the Indian cornea is about 519 microns compared to 557 microns in the West. Slicing off a layer of 30 microns would only induce a correction of minus one or so, says Vajpayee. <center>***** Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites