LASIK and Medications

Certain medications can diminish the effectiveness of your LASIK surgery or lead to complications after the fact. Frequently, these complications are related to dry eyes. However, depending on what you are taking, more serious issues can arise. It is important to discuss the medications you are currently taking with your laser eye surgeon before undergoing LASIK surgery.

The following medications can be problematic when taken in conjunction with your LASIK operation:

• Accutane: This drug is frequently used to treat severe acne. A common side effect of Accutane is dry eye, which can lead to LASIK complications. You should stop taking Accutane six months before your surgery, and refrain from using it for at least six more months while you recover.
  
• Beta Blockers: These are used to treat many conditions, including migraines, glaucoma, anxiety, and heart conditions. Beta blockers frequently cause dry eye. However, since it is generally not safe to discontinue using beta blockers, you should consult your ophthalmologist to see if you are a candidate for LASIK.
  
• Viagra: While Viagra doesn't lead to any complications with your LASIK surgery, it can result in other eye conditions that may affect your laser eye surgery. Viagra has been known to cause blurry vision, double vision, colors that appear unusual, decreased vision, and increased light sensitivity. In more severe cases, the drug can lead to redness, burning and bleeding of the eyes. If you are taking Viagra and experience any of these symptoms following your LASIK surgery, it will be almost impossible for your surgeon to determine whether they are a result of the surgery or side effects of the drug.
  
• Marijuana: Marijuana can lower the pressure inside your eye, which may increase your risk of under correction during your LASIK surgery. You might need additional surgery to correct the problem.
  

It is important to always be completely honest and forthright with your surgeon about all drugs -- prescription and nonprescription, legal and illegal -- that you are taking before going ahead with your eye surgery.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon near you.

Carotid Artery Blockage a Causal Factor for Glaucoma

A recent study has shown a link between carotid artery narrowing and the development of glaucoma, a degenerative eye disease resulting from increased intraocular pressure (IOP). This added pressure damages the optic nerve, causing vision loss and in severe cases, blindness.

This study came about after several patients in Great Britain continued to lose their vision after their IOP had been stabilized with medication or surgery. The majority of patients examined in this study suffered from at least partial carotid artery blockage on the same side as the eye with glaucoma.

The carotid artery is located in the neck and carries blood to the brain and eyes. Several patients experienced improved vision after correcting the carotid artery issue.

This study reaffirms the theory that reduced blood flow to the optic nerve may be a causal factor for glaucoma. Further research is required before the results can be more conclusively determined.

This study may pave the way for advancements in the treatment of glaucoma. It can also help doctors more quickly detect the warning signs of a stroke, a condition commonly brought on by blockage of the carotid artery.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified ophthalmologist in your area.

Sleep Apnea Linked to Eye Disorders

For quite some time, obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder impeding your breathing while sleeping, has been linked with a variety of medical conditions. The most common include cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. Recently, several eye conditions were added to that list.

The link between obstructive sleep apnea and eye conditions stems from the inhibition of the circulation of oxygen to your body's organs. When your breathing gets obstructed, all of your organs ultimately suffer the consequences.

Researchers have established a connection between sleep apnea and the following eye conditions:

• Floppy eyelid syndrome: Your eyelids turn inside out while you sleep, causing excessive watering, stickiness, discomfort, and blurry vision.
  
• Glaucoma: When not treated, it can lead to blindness. Primary open-angle glaucoma and normal-tension glaucoma are most commonly associated with sleep apnea. There is a direct relationship between the severity of your sleep apnea and the severity of your glaucoma.
  
• Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION): People suffering from this condition experience a sudden painless loss of vision in one eye, generally right after awakening. If not treated, it can lead to irreversible blindness.
  
• Papilledema: A swelling of the optic nerve in both eyes. It is caused by pressure in your skull, and if untreated can lead to blindness.
  

If you have obstructive sleep apnea, it is a good idea to get a regular check-up with your ophthalmologist to make sure that you are not developing any of these eye disorders.

LASIK Getting Safer for Athletes

For years, athletes, especially those participating in contact sports, were told that they were not candidates for LASIK. Fortunately, recent advances in LASIK technology have enabled many athletes to undergo laser vision correction without the increased risk of serious complications.

Early LASIK techniques needed to cut a flap on the outer layer of your cornea in order to reshape the irregularities on your inner cornea. This flap posed serious risks for athletes. If it was damaged at all during the healing process, it could lead to complications in the surgery. In extreme cases, you could lose your vision. The risk of these complications was particularly high for athletes competing in contact sports.

Today, a new procedure called Advanced Surface Ablation (ASA) can re-contour your cornea without cutting a flap. This enables athletes to get LASIK without the same risk of adverse consequences during the healing process.

Many ophthalmologists still do not consider athletes to be ideal candidates for LASIK. However, the truth is that laser vision correction is far safer for athletes than it ever has been in the past. Many athletes are now able to safely return to competition shortly following their LASIK procedure thanks to the advancements of ASA.

If you are considering LASIK, you can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon in your area.

New Cornea Transplant Techniques Offer Better Results

For many people suffering from cornea damage as part of the aging process, a corneal transplant is the only hope of preventing degenerative eye diseases and possible blindness.

When your cornea becomes clouded, light does not effectively reach the retina. This can occur as a result of scarring from injury or infection, inflammation of the cornea, too much exposure to direct sunlight, or as part of the general aging process. The only way to correct a cloudy cornea is to replace it with a transplant.

Typical cornea transplants replace the entire cornea with a new one from a donor. Recently, advancements in this surgery have enabled ophthalmologists to replace only the damaged region of the cornea. This helps provide for a safer overall procedure and a quicker recovery process.

There are two new transplant options available. The Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK) method is used when replacing the front corneal layers. The Descement's Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasy (DSAEK) method works to replace the inner layers of the cornea.

These procedures use microsurgical dissection techniques and state-of-the-art femtosecond lasers to separate the damaged layers of the cornea from the healthy layers, so that they can be removed and replaced. Since the healthy layers are not touched during this process, they are able to remain in your eye.

The main benefits of these advancements include a lower risk of transplant rejection, better recuperation of vision, faster recovery time, and fewer complications.

If you have sustained damage to your cornea, it is important to have a skilled ophthalmologist treat your disorder before you develop permanent eye disorders. Failure to treat the problem can potentially lead to blindness.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified ophthalmologist in your area.

LASIK Unadvisable for Pregnant Women

If you are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or have just given birth and are still breastfeeding, you are not a candidate for LASIK. You will need to wait at least two or three months after you finish breastfeeding to consider laser eye surgery.

During and immediately after pregnancy, women manufacture hormones that cause them to retain fluid in their body. While this fluid is generally more noticeable in other areas of the body, the swelling can occur anywhere, including the lens of your eye. This swelling in your eye can distort your vision, making you slightly more nearsighted or astigmatic than normal. These changes in hormone levels continue until after a woman has finished breastfeeding.

In LASIK, your eye surgeon reshapes your cornea using a Wavefront device to create a 3D map of your eye's irregularities. If you have this procedure while pregnant, the map of your eye's irregularities will be incorrect as a result of the additional hormonal swelling. This can lead to either an overcorrection or undercorrection in the treatment of your eyes.

It is also possible for the drugs used during the LASIK procedure to damage a baby. Mild sedatives, antibiotic eye drops, and cortisone eye drops are all used during the eye surgery. These drugs are absorbed by your blood stream and can harm a growing fetus, especially in the first trimester. More information is needed to determine whether these drugs can harm a baby while breastfeeding. To play it safe, it is not advisable to expose your newborn to such a risk.

If you are planning on having children in the near future, you need to discuss this with your eye surgeon to make sure that it is safe for you to go ahead with the LASIK procedure. Most likely, he will advise you to put off the surgery until after your pregnancy.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon in your area.

New Breakthrough in Childhood Glaucoma

Medical researchers have found a genetic link to childhood glaucoma. Children who suffer from this degenerative eye disease either have missing or extra pieces of DNA, called copy number variations (CNV).

Pediatric glaucoma is a very serious disease that if untreated, can lead to blindness. New research from the University of Alberta has determined how these copy number variations occur.

This breakthrough has far reaching implications throughout the field of medicine. In the short term, it will further doctors' understanding of pediatric glaucoma. In the long term, researchers will be able to use this information to gain additional insight into other genetically based diseases connected to copy number variations. Some of these include heart disease and psoriasis.

This new research will have a profound impact on determining the cause of pediatric glaucoma, and ultimately, it will lead to better treatment as well. If your child has vision problems, it is important to have him or her examined by an ophthalmologist to make sure that serious disorders such as pediatric glaucoma are not the cause of the problem.

You can use the links at the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified ophthalmologist in your area.