From: joshua@Veritas.COM (Joshua Levy)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Precision Diamond Radial Keratotomy
Date: 14 Apr 92 22:42:40 GMT
Organization: VERITAS Software

Joe.Noel@f13.n3805.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Noel) writes:
>I have extreme myopia and have recently attended a seminar on Precision 
>Diamond Radial keratotomy.  I would be interested in hearing from anyone who 
>has had any experiences with this proceedure both good and especially bad. 

I had Radial Keratotomy done just over a year ago; I think it was with a
diamond blade.  It was a total success: a few days of being uncomforatable,
two weeks of minor side effects, and then nothing but wonderful vision. 
Two of my friends had it done (by different doctors) about 3 and about 7
years ago.  They both thought it was great.

>The Doctor who put on the seminar talked a good story but I tend to not 
>believe all statistics since he is trying to sell this procedure and make 
>money.

I would look at some studies, specifically Arrowsmith and PERK.  I think 
PERK was described in Journal of the American Med Society in Jan or Feb
of 1989.  That article should have a reference to the Arrowsmith study.
An RK surgeon who has had lots of practice should do much better than the
PERK study, however.  For example, almost all of the PERK doctors had
no RK experiance before the protocol started; they each got 10 "practice"
runs, but your surgeon should have done lots more than that.

Exactly what did your doctor tell you?  Mine said 75% chance of never 
needing glasses again after one operation, and 90%+ after two.  After
one operation (per eye) I've never had to wear glasses, or felt I needed
them.

>Specifically I would especially like to hear from anyone with extreme myopia 
>that has had the procedure.  

My myopia was -6D in each eye before the procedure.  Now it is about 0.
I don't think -6 is exteme, but you may.

>How bad is the "glare" effect and the "starburst" effect?  Does this effect 
>you at night to the extent that you can not drive?  

I never had trouble driving.  Not even the day after the operations.
For me glare was not a problem, for about 2 weeks after each procedure,
I wore dark glasses when outside during the day.  No big deal.  After
that period, my eyes have been fine.  In fact, I tend to have less
glare problems than people who wear contact lenses.

Starburst never was a problem.  When I wore glasses, I would often
get a pale "halo" around light sources at night.  After RK, these would
sometimes be sharbursts and sometimes be gone.  I would not even call
these a side effect, although technically they are.  They were absolutely
no problem for me.

My humble (and non-medical) opinion:
    If you wear glasses with less than -7D of correction, and you can find
    an eye surgeon who has done many RKs and who you are comforatable with, 
    then I would seriously consider RK surgery.  I fully understand why
    eye doctors hate it: it cures nearsightedness, which is their bread
    and butter.   But from a patient point of view, it did everything I was
    told it would do.

I'll be happy to answer via email or phone any specific questions anyone
has about RK.  (I'm a very happy customer.)

Joshua Levy  (joshua@veritas.com)    408-727-1222x253
Newsgroups: sci.med