Questions Answered by Accuvision
Thursday, September 22, 2005
I wasn't going to post until next Sunday after my consultation with Ultralase, but thought I'd better post the answers to my question I asked at Accuvision before I forget what they were. So here goes...
Q. What if I go swimming, will the Chlorine get inside the corneal flap?
Will it cause irritation or worse infection?
A. No
Q. Does the corneal flap ever heal?
A. Yes, the flap seals itself within about 4 hours of being replaced. The seal can be broken at a later date should a re-treatment be necessary.
Q. Will I always have to avoid rubbing my eyes?
A. No, after about a week or month depending on the individual, it is ok to lightly brush/clean the eyelashes with the tips of the fingers. Rubbing the eyes with your knuckles is not recommended.
Q. Will I lose some near vision? By this I meant without wearing my glasses. I have a habit of taking my glasses off and bring the page closer to read it.
A. Yes, you will be able to read at the same distance as you current do with wearing glasses.
Q. Do you use a freshly sterilized keratome and a new blade for each eye?
A. A new blade is used for each eye but the keratome is sterilised and reused
.
Q. From which direction is the keratome make the cut? i.e. where will the hinge be, at the top, side or bottom of my eyes?
A. In my case the hinge will be at the top of the eye.
Q. I could feel all the soft contact lenses I ever wore, will be able to feel the flap after surgery?
A. No
Q. Will the flap be visible to other people?
A. No not to the visible eye and possibly not even under a microscope.
Q. What are your qualifications?
Do you have:
A medical degree?
Ophthalmology training?
Are you a corneal specialist?
A refractive surgery fellowship?
A. CV obtained for surgeon Brett Halliday
Q. How long have you been performing refractive surgery?
A. 12 years.
Q. Do you audit your outcomes and do research?
A. Yes
Q. Will I be treated with wavefront technology?
A. Yes, wavefront guided.
Q. Can I have a copy of the assessment/records wavefront maps after surgery?
A. Yes they will be posted to me.
Q. Visual acuity and visual quality are different. You can be 20/20 or better, and still be severely compromised. How would you comment on this?
A. A visual acuity of 20/20 means you will be able to read the characters of height 20 on a snellen chart from 20 feet away. However, if visual quality is impaired you will not be able to read them clearly, some may appear to be ghosted or hazy.
Q. What is my corneal thickness?
A. 585 microns for one eye and 560 microns for the other.
Q. How much will you need to create a flap?
A. 100 microns
Q. How much will be left?
A. At least 300 microns
Q. What is the diameter of the area to which the laser is applied? In other words, will the laser be applied to an area greater than the widest part of my dilated pupil?
A. The diameter of my pupils are 6.5 mm and 6.2 mm. The area applied by the laser will be 8 mm and then smoothed off towards the edge of the cornea.
Q. What is the difference between Wavefront Optimised and Wavefront Guided?
A. Wavefront optimised is a best guess, given the patients data at where the laser will attempt to remove the high order aberrations. Wavefront guided will exactly remove the high order aberrations.
Q. What is the diameter of my pupil?
A. 6.5 mm and 6.2 mm
posted by Alan and Maxine @ 6:21 pm,
