Surgery with Femtosecond Lasers

An anonymous reader writes "Science Daily has an article on femtosecond lasers, which emit pulses of light that are a billion times shorter than an electronic camera flash and how they are currently being used in LASIK procedures."

Comments

Re:Hmm, how fast is an electronic camera flash...

[GigsVT]

not really, more like a few milliseconds

I guess we should really come up with some standard system for measurement in news articles, the JI (Journalist Idiots) System of measurement.

Time - camera flashs
Small physical size - human hairs
Large information - Library of congresses
Meteor size - VW Bugs

Any more?

Do more research when considering eye surgury.

[slacy]

Almost everyone I've ever talked with who's gotten laser eye surgury has been disappointed with the results. They all say:

"My doctor told me that my vision would be better than what I see with my contacts in. Its not. Its worse than it was before, but at least I don't have to deal with contacts. They say I can stop using these eye drops after a couple of months."

Well, to me, that sounds like a pretty sorry tradeoff. Don't waste your vision on convenience! Find several people who have had the procedure, and ask them how satisfied they are, if they have to wear glasses (most still do for reading) and if there were other side effects.

Microkeratome

[sazim]

I had LASIK surgery on both eyes in 1997. I had -6.5 (diopters ?) in both eyes (very short sighted) and came out of the operation with 40/20 vision (better than 20/20) in both eyes.

A microkeratome (razor) was used to create the "flap". They told me that it was this device that was the "weak" link in the entire procedure as it could get stuck or could cut slightly wrong, as mentioned in the article. As the surgery is done while awake (both patient and surgeon), I was relieved when told that the microkeratome had cut successfully. I was lucky and have no complaints: I had to use several eye drops for 3 months during which time my vision was *slightly* hazy (at night) but nothing after that.

One of my eyes has become slightly astigmatic (natural process) and I am considering another LASIK procedure as it is now several generations on from my previous surgery. Good to know that the microkeratome is possibly on the way out.