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New Procedure Can Predict Risk of Glare After LASIK
Common Side Effect May Be Minimized By New Measurement
New York, N.Y. (January 2002) -- First available new technology measures waviness and distortion in vision and can predict who might have glare, halo and starburst after LASIK eye surgery. Using technology developed for improving the resolution of images in deep space astronomy, Vision Wavemap® wavefront vision scanning can measure the smallest alterations of focus in the human eye that can cause unwanted side effects of LASIK. Since FDA approval in the 1990s, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of patients that have undergone LASIK vision correction surgery: more than one million in the United States alone, and millions more expected in the next few years. With this increased amount of surgery, the number of patients that have problems such as glare, halo, and starburst has also increased. These problems are typically due to different prescriptions being required for different portions of the eye. One of the most important steps of LASIK surgery is using the correct prescription to program the laser. Traditionally, vision was measured with a single lens prescription that corrected the whole eye on average. Conventional laser treatment methods can only treat that one prescription. Vision Wavemap® custom laser vision analysis uses a laser beam to measure the varied prescriptions at many different points on a patient's eye and produces a 3-D map of the individual's vision. Distortion in these maps is due to the amount of variation in prescription needed for that patient's eye. The distortion level gives the surgeon a more complete analysis of the person's eye, and can predict who might have glare, halo, and starburst before they have vision correction surgery. Barrie Soloway, M.D., FACS, Director of Vision Correction at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, is the first surgeon in New York to use Vision Wavemap® to detect distortion in those patients interested in LASIK and laser vision correction.
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"Although many patients have had excellent results with conventional laser treatments, not every patient ends up with the result they wanted," says Dr. Soloway. "One reason is that every person's eye focuses in a unique way just like our fingerprints or DNA. Two people with 20/20 vision don't always see the same as each other. With this technology we can accurately diagnose patients with distortion and higher order aberrations before LASIK and advise them against conventional surgery. Even patients who have had LASIK surgery and have vision problems might also be helped with this technology," Dr. Soloway explains. "It shows us what the cause of their problem is, and can also help us program the laser to correct it. During the evaluation process, the Vision Wavemap® is completed in less than 12 milliseconds; then the three-dimensional maps of the multiple prescriptions evaluated. If the Vision Wavemap® of these prescriptions is uniform, the patient should be able to undergo conventional laser surgery with excellent results. But when the eye has higher order aberrations, the Vision Wavemap® will be distorted. Since conventional laser treatments cannot correct these distortions, those patients are advised to wait for a more customized LASIK surgery. "Using this tool to accurately measure a patient's prescription can be invaluable in determining which patients should not be treated with conventional laser vision correction," says Dr. Soloway. "It is also the important first step in the rehabilitation of those patients who have had problems with their vision after LASIK surgery. No other tool was available before this that could measure the different prescriptions required to improve these patients' problems of glare and visual disability. With this information, we should be able to program a new correction into the laser that can help these patients see better," he adds. For more information, visit Dr. Soloway's website.
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