Lasik Surgery

Filed in archive General Health on April 24, 2007

How are your eyes?" I'm scheduled for cataract surgery next month. It's a fairly simple procedure. I've already had one eye done.

I've thought about Lasik surgery to improve my vision, but I'm not young anymore and I thought that Lasik surgery was a young people's thing. Seems I thought wrong, according to this article from Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs:

The researchers observed case histories of 424 laser eye surgery patients between the ages of 40 and 69. The surgeries were performed to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Researchers divided the cases into three groups based on age, a group for 40 to 49 year olds, 50 to 59 year olds and 60 to 63 year olds. The researchers found no difference in the safety of the surgeries between the groups, and all the groups reported 20/40 vision or better without their glasses.

What is Lasik surgery? The Lasik Directory explains it this way:

It's the use of a laser beam to modify the shape of your cornea such that your vision will improve. LASIK stands for Laser-Assisted in-situ Keratomileusis. There are 3 main varieties of LASIK surgery, only one of which is correctly called "LASIK surgery", and it's principally used for people who are very shortsighted or very longsighted.

I'm going to look into it, the cost and what's involved. It sure would be nice to be able to read the labels on cans and the fine print on paperwork again.