Do Laser Eye Surgery Results Differ Between Prescriptions?

Mr Glenn  Carp – “Certainly in patients with higher prescriptions there is slight increase in variability in the healing process. They may require more enhancements further down the line to fine tune the last bit of residual prescriptive refraction error and also patients with different types of prescriptions will have different outcomes, for example, shortsighted patients as a group may be slightly more predictable, for example, than patients with high astigmatism or longsighted patients, but having said that nowadays laser surgery is amenable to all types of prescription errors. It is not just localised to be able to treat shortsighted people. We can certainly nowadays treat all types of refractive errors.”

Laser Eye Surgery Results Between Prescriptions Explained Further…

In general, results (the term used in refractive surgery is efficacy) decrease as medication increases. Our experience at London Vision Clinic, while not as dramatic as the norm, mirrors this general trend. Therefore, when reviewing results, it is important to have these results reflect what vision patients achieve for specific medications (as opposed to overall results across all med.s which are less relevant and are in fact often biased towards lower prescriptions).

One of the methods we use at mitigating this effect is by planning High Profile treatments with our patients who suffer from higher medication.

High Profile treatments are akin to taking two attempts to reach a target instead of one. With one attempt, there is always the chance that we may overshoot or fall short of our target. Planning the treatment in two stages enables us to optimise safety and results for patients with higher prescriptions.

High Profile procedures cost more in terms of time and money, but the vast majority of our patients when presented with this option decide it is best for them.

Results also differ between short-sightedness and long-sightedness (i.e. 97% of short-sighted patients achieve “20/20″ or better, while 90% of long-sighted patients achieve “20/20″ or better). At London Vision Clinic, however, 100% of patients, short-sighted or long-sighted, with or without astigmatism achieve “20/40″ or better. Indeed, 100% of short-sighted patients up to -9.00D saw “20/32″ or better after treatment with at London Vision Clinic.