Talk:Photorefractive keratectomy

Possible complications

Does anyone have any numbers on the probability of these? --Marco 17:24, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Military acceptance

This article is out of date in that the Military DOES allow refractive surgery in aviation personnel. I just retired from the Navy and I was approved to treat all aviation personnel including pilots with PRK or other laser surface ablation. All refractive surgery is considered disqualifying for flight status, but waivers for PRK are routinely granted (I had over 100 approved and none disapproved) LASIK, as a less safe procedure than PRK, and RK, which can be unstable at altitude, normally are disqualifying and waivers aren't usually granted for LASIK or RK. Under some circumstances potential Aviation Officer Candidates may even have PRK at Navy expense to improve their vision to attempt to meet aviation vision standards to qualify to enter the program.

- recently retired Navy Ophthalmologist and flight surgeon

Concur:

Naval Academy Midshipmen provided the bodies for the PRK study for suitability ('98-'04, last I heard). 98.9% of us (sorry, can't verify the numbers) are now seeing 20/20 or better. I'm personally seeing 20/15.

Good stuff,

Thank you retired Navy Opthalmologist for your contribution to my improved eyesight.

• Also Concur: I am currently in the Air Force, and know that PRK is definitely allowed and waiverable. Currently LASIK is not, although I have heard (read: don't know for certain) that the FAA has approved LASIK for its pilots, so hopefully the Air Force will follow up on that soon. (Note: I have horrible vision. My contact lens prescription is for -6.50 diopters, meaning that even with surgery, I am only potentially qualified to be a navigator, not a pilot. That, and the long healing time for PRK, are what kept me from doing it. Plenty of my friends have gotten PRK, so I have seen plenty of what they have to deal with post-op.)--Nate Dawg 17:09, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

ASL

I've recently done a procedure called ASL (Advanced Surface Laser) which the doctor mentioned is an advancedment of PRK. I'm not exactly sure where this advancedment is. Can someone perhaps add the ASL section or add a new section together to compare the difference between PRK/LASEK/ASL/LASIK?

ASL works pretty much the same with PRK where the ephitelium is removed and let it grown back over the next few days. Hopefully an expert can add something to this issue. vhadiant 23:52, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Images

Can we find some drawings of what is being done in the different forms of corrective eye surgery? RJFJR 16:18, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

no really international...

This last part of this article (Issues with patients requiring high visual acuity) is, in my opinion, too much euacentric.. is this the EUA wikipedia or the english wikipedia?