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U.S. military now offering LASIK to soldiers
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army has begun to allow soldiers the option of having LASIK to correct their refractive errors.
In an article in the April 1 Washington Post, Lt. Col. Kraig S. Bower, MD, director of refractive surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, said the surgery makes people into potentially better soldiers, better able to perform their duties.
Walter Reed launched its Warfighter Refractive Eye Surgery Program in January and since than has corrected the vision of almost 200 service members. There and at other Army hospitals across the country, surgeons expect to correct the vision of thousands of soldiers in coming years. The Air Force and Navy offer similar programs.
Two years ago, anyone who had undergone such surgery would have been disqualified from active duty. Dr. Bower said now the surgery is not only allowed but encouraged.
The decision to allow refractive surgery came when a Department of Defense medical panel, after evaluating several years of research by the Navy, concluded that concerns about laser surgery damaging the structure of the eyes had not been borne out and that -- to the contrary -- the surgery was a way to improve the fighting forces. Congress subsequently approved $15 million for the program.
Dr. Bowers said that many soldiers are encouraged by superiors to have the surgery.
Eyeglasses have long been troublesome for soldiers, and modern warfare has made the problem worse. Increasingly, the military is employing sophisticated weapons and gadgets that glasses can interfere with. Soldiers who wear glasses need prescription inserts to wear gas masks. The same is true of goggles being developed to protect soldiers from enemy lasers.
The Washington Post article said that in harsh environments where U.S. troops often are deployed, contact lenses can be even worse. During the Gulf War, many soldiers who normally wore contact lenses ended up wearing glasses instead.
The adverse effects reported by small percentages of patients -- including pain, glare, halos and vision left worse than it had been with glasses or contact lenses -- have not been common enough to stop performing the surgery, Army officials said.
The military remains reluctant about allowing LASIK surgery on aviators because of concerns that high-speed ejections from aircraft could tear the flaps, officials said. More research into this possibility is being conducted.