54 Years Old with Gloucoma - LASEK is Still a Solution
Q: I am writing on behalf of my wife, she is interested in LASEK and we have a couple of questions: She is 54 years, nearsighted with Gloucoma (taking Restisis), her Gloucoma Doctor does not recommend the procedure but she wanted to check with you also.
A: I have performed LASEK on many patients with glaucoma. unlike in LASIK, there is no flap being cut, so there is no need to increase the eye pressure to make the eye hard (it is difficult to make an accurate cut in a soft ball). in glaucoma patients, that would be unsafe, as increasing IOP as you know can damage the nerve cells in your eye
In our newer, safer, noncutting LASEK, in contrast, we do not increase IOP at all, as we dont need to because we are not cutting a flap, so it is safe in glaucoma patients whose IOPs are controlled
Most likely, your eye doctor isn’t really clear about the safety advantages of LASEK in glaucoma patients, so please forward this email to both your wife and her doctor and cc me on the forward, so i can reach out to him or her and make sure we are all on the same page
Clearly, i won’t do anything until her doctor speaks to me and also agrees that the above plan is safe
Restasis is not a glaucoma medication, by the way, it’s a treatment for dry eyes, so if you are mistaken and her problem is really dry eyes, the same as above applies: ie, dry eyes is caused by cutting the corneal nerves when making the LASIK flap, which is why my eyes are a bit dry as i had LASIK myself a decade ago, but with LASEK there is no flap cut, so no corneal nerves cut, so no dry eyes, so if you are on restasis for dry eyes you can still have LASEK.
