Many patients with obstructive sleep apnea still can have successful LASIK or PRK laser vision correction eye surgery. However, independent of having surgery, patients with sleep apnea can have eye problems that need to be checked before having surgery. A patient who lives in Santa Barbara and suffers from obstructive sleep apnea asked me if […]
LASIK Can Be Used to Fine Tune Vision After Cataract Surgery
by David Shapiro, MD
After cataract surgery, many patients still need glasses or contacts. LASIK is better at touching up residual nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism than lens exchange surgery or piggyback IOL placement. Cataract surgery involves taking the cloudy lens out of the eye and replacing it with a plastic implant. Ideally, a patient’s prescription is put into the […]
Comparison of Safety, Predictabiliy, and Efficacy of 2 Femtosecond Lasers for LASIK Flap Creation
by David Shapiro, MD
A new study shows equal outcomes when comparing the 500 kHz Visumax and the 60kHz Intralase femtosecond laser for creating a LASIK flap. In LASIK laser vision correction, there are two steps. First a LASIK flap is created and then the cornea is re-shaped with the excimer laser. Broadly speaking, there are two different technologies […]
New Refractive Corneal Collagen Cross Linking Procedure Approved in Europe
by David Shapiro, MD
Avedro receives CE mark approval (similar to FDA approval) for Advanced Corneal Cross-Linking System for Photorefractive Instrastromal Cross Linking Corneal cross linking is a technique in which ultra-violet light and riboflavin (a B vitamin) are applied to the cornea to make it stiffer and stronger. It currently is in FDA clinical trials in the United […]
Aging Causes the Eyes to Become Drier, but Age is Not Itself a Contraindication to LASIK
by David Shapiro, MD
Increasing age changes the quality of the tears. Older patients require careful attention to treating dry eye before LASIK laser eye surgery. A 54 year old patient from Santa Barbara recently asked my why her eyes were getting drier as she got older and wondered if she still could be a candidate for LASIK. A […]