Over the past month or so, there’s been quite a bit of chatter when it comes to Lasik eye surgery. Most of this has come because of Morris Waxler, a former employee at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Waxler claims that the Lasik eye surgery procedure that he himself helped to get approved two decades ago is responsible for what he calls an “epidemic” of long-term problems with patient vision.
Recently, Waxler has filed a citizens petition with the Food and Drug Administration urging that they stop this “epidemic” caused by Lasik. The petition contains data that show, according to Waxler, that the Lasik eye surgery procedure can cause persistent problems with vision, and that its success rate is below 50 percent.
The former FDA employee, who retired from that agency in 2000, says that he has received complaints from many consumers who have had the Lasik eye surgery. Some of the most common complaints have included impaired night vision, an excessive amount of glare as well as seeing halos.
Waxler claims that as many as 18 percent of people who have Lasik eye surgery have experienced these kinds of problems.
Not everyone agrees with Waxler’s claims, however. According to a professor of ophthalmology at NYU Langone Medical Center, Dr. Robert Cykiert, as many as 99 percent of people that undergo the Lasik eye surgery procedure wind up with positive results.
This controversy isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. While there are other types of laser eye correction surgeries available today, Lasik is still very popular among some eye doctors. Up to this point, there haven’t been any scientific studies to support Waxler’s numbers, although the procedure is relatively new enough that a significant amount of data may not yet be available.
If you’re considering Lasik eye surgery, make sure to discuss your options with your doctor. Talk about your concerns, and about the risks involved. Ask about her success rates with other patients, and about what’s realistic to expect as far as things like side effects, recovery times and potential long-term problems that can result from the procedure.
