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Check your physician’s credentials before undergoing LASIK
Recent reports by ABC News and Good Morning America are raising concerns about the safety of laser vision correction or LASIK surgery.
The news report focused on a group of patients who were unhappy with their LASIK surgery, some saying they were worse off after the surgery than before.
Dr. William Martin, medical director of OptiVue and an assistant professor and chief of the ophthalmology section at the University of Toledo Medical Center, said nearly 1 million people nationwide underwent the procedure last year and called it “one of the most successful procedures in the U.S. in terms of patient satisfaction.”
Despite the high frequency rate with which LASIK surgery is performed in America, Dr. Martin noted that the federal Food and Drug Administration -- which regulates such procedures – has received only 200 reports of dissatisfaction between 1998 and 2006.
Dr. Martin, who has personally performed more than 20,000 refractive surgery procedures since 1996, said the procedures are safe, but added that “it is important that patients do their homework regarding the doctors they will be seeing.”
Patients should review the doctor’s credentials and ask how many procedures that doctor has done and the outcome. Dr. Martin noted that the American College of Eye Surgeons, which certifies doctors in performance of laser vision correction surgery, is a good place for patients to visit before settling on a LASIK provider.
“Each patient should make sure that his doctor has the highest qualification in order to make a safe, successful procedure even more successful,” Dr. Martin said.
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