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Publication Exclusive: Monovision LASIK in nondominant eye provides good vision at all distances
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Brock Magruder underwent a LASIK monovision procedure in just his nondominant eye at age 50.
I have found with many latent hyperopic presbyopes that they will benefit even more with a small correction in the distance eye as well; however, Brock is waiting for his dysfunctional lens syndrome to reach a stage at which he can have refractive lens exchange.
It is noteworthy that a good number of ophthalmologists are not aware that LASIK can be performed for presbyopia with monovision with excellent results and nearly no distance vision compromise.
Richard A. Norden, MD, OSN Refractive Surgery Stories Editor
I was the one with perfect vision my entire life — until my 40s. I was measured at 20/10 at one point, with a tiny amount of hyperopia that allowed accommodation for exquisite focus at any distance. When presbyopia developed with the slowing of focus and poor reading in dim conditions, I was quite annoyed. There is nothing like reading glasses to remind one he is getting old. My distance remained excellent, if not quite as sharp as I had previously enjoyed.
In my mid-40s, I experimented with one contact in my nondominant eye as a monovision strategy. The exercise was limited by my poor contact lens tolerance, but my brain nevertheless could not adapt to the different visions. There followed several years of increasing reading glass dependence. In my late 40s, accommodation completely left me, and I needed to bring readers on bike rides to see my phone or look for the cause of a flat tire. The last straw was needing the circulating nurse to put reading glasses on my face to double check something in the chart when I was scrubbed in the OR. With the help of some contact lens experts, I was able to revisit the monovision strategy; my presbyopia had apparently sufficiently worsened enough that it was now successful. But even this “optimal” contact lens was uncomfortable — I was never unaware it was present.
Click here to read the full publication exclusive, Refractive Surgery Stories, published in Ocular Surgery News U.S. Edition, February 10, 2016.