Problems from Lasik? File a MedWatch report with the FDA online. Alternatively, you may call FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 to report by telephone, download the paper form and either fax it to 1-800-FDA-0178 or mail it to the address shown at the bottom of page 3, or download the MedWatcher Mobile App for reporting LASIK problems to the FDA using a smart phone or tablet.
Patients with LASIK complications are invited to join the discussion on FaceBook.
Past President of American Glaucoma Society warns of risk of vision loss from undiagnosed glaucoma after LASIK
From the article: But as a glaucoma specialist and past president of the American Glaucoma Society, Dr. Lewis is keenly aware of the difficulty [LASIK] presents for accurately diagnosing glaucoma. "Our ability to diagnose and observe patients with glaucoma after refractive surgery is in doubt," Dr. Lewis observed in an editorial several years ago. He is still sounding the alarm.
E-mail from medical doctor who suffered vision loss after LASIK - 1/17/2013
I would not have discovered that I had glaucoma after LASIK, if I had not been tested with Ocular Coherence Tomography [OCT]. Conventional Goldman applanation tonometry (the gold standard for glaucoma detection) is notoriously inaccurate after LASIK. Other clinical features like fundoscopy and visual field confrontation were undiagnostic in my case. The OCT looking at my optic nerve and retina demonstrate the severe damage that has already occurred due to glaucoma, specifically the pathological loss of optic nerve fiber thickness in three of the four quadrants of each of my optic nerves. It also demonstrated PVD in my left eye.
I encourage any post-LASIK patient to familiarize themselves with the known inability to accurately measure IOP in post LASIK patients using conventional techniques. I now have an additional permanent vision loss after LASIK. In my opinion any patient who has LASIK should be followed by a glaucoma specialist, as they are the only doctors who have the equipment that could have diagnosed my problem sooner and prevented my irreversible vision loss.
Due to the complicity of the FDA in not warning the public, many people never realize the damage LASIK has done to them.
Complication cascade after hyperopic LASIK.
Ophthalmologe. 2011 Apr 13. Handzel DM, Stanzel BV, Briesen S.
Augenklinik Dardenne, Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 23-25, 53177, Bonn, Deutschland, handzel@dardenne.de.
Abstract: This report concerns the case of a 28-year-old female patient who was treated with topical steroids for 2 years following complicated hyperopic LASIK surgery with a re-treatment including a re-lift of the flap. A steroid-induced rise in the intraocular pressure (IOP) was subsequently observed on the treated eye, together with a glaucomatous subtotal destruction of the optic nerve, resulting in a residual vision of 1/15. An erroneously low IOP measurement, which was probably the reason for the delay in detecting steroid-induced glaucoma, has been reported in several cases concerning LASIK patients. The reason for the unusually severe course in the case in question can only be presumed, namely a possible accumulation of fluid at the interface or altered biomechanics following hyperopic LASIK surgery. The need for a thorough postoperative examination following refractive surgery must be emphasized. This case shows a cascade of complications following hyperopic LASIK surgery resulting in the functional blindness of one eye.
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