This article originally appeared in the July-August 1998 issue of the FDA Consumer Magazine and contains revisions made in August 1998 and April 1999. For Jeri Goldstein everything was a blur. Without her contact lenses she couldn't distinguish people, the scenes on television, the stars at night, and, generally, the world at large. Although there are several types of surgical techniques being performed today to correct refractive errors, laser refractive correction is fast becoming the most technologically advanced method available, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology in San Francisco.
Doctors say it allows for an unparalleled degree of precision and predictability.
The Food and Drug Administration first approved the excimer laser in October 1995 for correcting mild to moderate nearsightedness. With that approval, the agency also restricted use of the laser to practitioners trained both in laser refractive surgery and in the calibration and operation of the laser. Precision Surgery PRK is an outpatient procedure generally performed with local anesthetic eye drops. This type of refractive surgery gently reshapes the cornea by removing microscopic amounts of tissue from the outer surface with a cool, computer-controlled ultraviolet beam of light. The beam is so precise it can cut notches in a strand of human hair without breaking it, and each pulse can remove 39 millionths of an inch of tissue in 12 billionths of a second.