It’s widely accepted that patients undergoing LASIK surgery are happy with the results, but the New York Times says that might not be the case.
Based on a recent clinical trial by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Times reports that nearly half of all people who had healthy eyes before LASIK developed visual aberrations and nearly one-third developed dry eyes for the first time after the procedure. Although visual symptoms were common, few participants reported functionally important limitations due to symptoms.
The trial, published in Jama Ophthalmology, recommends patient-reported outcomes should routinely be collected using validated questionnaires before and after LASIK surgery. It says patient satisfaction has been assessed in many studies using only a single question and without examining associations with visual and ocular symptoms, and that issues such as dry eye symptoms and problems with vision related to the presence of glare, halos, or starbursts and dissatisfaction following LASIK surgery are more likely to be reported on the questionnaire than to their health care professionals.
The Times suggests all LASIK patients should be made aware they could develop new symptoms after surgery, and points out that most visual aberrations following the procedure subside after the first few months, but says not many long-term (longer than one year) post-surgical studies have been conducted.
