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Have You Seen the 10-year Long-term Safety Data on LASIK?
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EXCERPT
No. Most refractive surgeons are confident about the long-term safety of LASIK; the problem is that no one has yet published the long-term safety. There are currently only 303 eyes that had LASIK with 5- to 6-year follow-up in 4 papers in the literature, despite the fact that as of 2004 there had already been over 17 million LASIK procedures performed since the early 1990s, with over 8 million in the United States alone. It is therefore not surprising that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) of the United Kingdom declared that “There are concerns about the procedure’s safety in the long term, and current evidence does not appear adequate to support its use without special arrangements for consent and for audit or research” in its interim “Guidance Document” entitled “Laser in situ keratomileusis for the treatment of refractive errors” published in December 2004. This conclusion was based on a review of seven randomized controlled trials, one systematic review, and four large case series with detailed reporting of complications, many cited in the Cochrane library.
AUTHORS
Dr Reinstein is from London Vision Clinic, London, United Kingdom; and Dr Waring is in private practice, Atlanta, Ga.