A patient from Oxnard who has worn contact lenses for many years and was considering having LASIK asked me how night vision compared between contacts and LASIK. The American Academy of Ophthalmology just published an excellent three year study looking at, among other things, this very question of night vision after LASIK. This was a very large study of 1800 patients who either 1) had LASIK or 2) continued to wear contacts. Patients ranged in age in the study from 18 to 60 years old. Among contact lens wears who decided to have LASIK, 42% said they had no difficulty with night driving with contacts. After they had LASIK, this number jumped to 60% having no difficulty with night driving 3 years after surgery, a nearly 50% improvement. Among contact lens wearers who chose not to have LASIK and continue to wear contacts, 37% said they had no problems driving at night with their contacts at 3 years into the study (versus the 60% having no problems driving at night with LASIK at 3 years into the study).  LASIK also reduced the number of patients experiencing both starburst and halos around lights at night compared to contact lens use in the study. Earlier generations of conventional LASIK, particularly in very nearsighted (myopic) patients, had produced night vision problems in the past. The night vision with LASIK, however, has improved dramatically over the years, particularly with the advent of the latest versions of customized wavefront LASIK. Today, even US Navy Top Gun pilots, who require outstanding night vision, are allowed to have LASIK.