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| | | ![]() LASIK Surgery Found Safe For Correction Of Nearsightedness SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Jan. 19, 1999 -- According to a study in this month’s issue of the journal Ophthalmology complications are rare in the use of laser in-situ kertomileusis (LASIK) for the correction of nearsightedness. "Complications occur in about five percent of cases, but these rarely lead to substantial loss of vision or to visual acuity below 20/40," said American Academy of Ophthalmology, member R. Doyle Stulting, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study. The authors of this prospective, observational clinic study of 1,062 eyes of 574 nearsighted patients found that the incidence of complications during surgery decreased from 3.1 percent in the first three months to 0.7 percent during the last nine months of the study, indicating that complication rates decrease as the surgical team gains experience. They also found that a flap buttonhole (a small hole in the centre of the corneal flap) is more likely to cause loss of vision than either of the two other complications -- flaps that have been cut off completely and those that have not been cut far enough. The flap buttonhole complication may be more likely in eyes that have undergone previous surgery.
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