Worldwide overview of LASIK

The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) announced that their first review of the world body of scientific literature indicated that an average of 95.4% of LASIK patients worldwide is satisfied with their new vision.

There are over 16.3 million patients had LASIK worldwide, a technique that has more than a decade of clinical study coupled with years of technical innovation, LASIK is considered among the most successful and rapidly growing elective procedures available today.

“We find that there is solid evidence in the world’s scientific literature to affirm that there is an exceptionally high level of satisfaction in patients who have had LASIK surgery. While no surgery is perfect, certainly the 19 peer-reviewed studies of 2,199 patients show extremely high satisfaction rates,” said Richard L. Lindstrom, M.D., president of the ASCRS. “While patient satisfaction is extremely high, we recognize that there are patients who have unsatisfactory outcomes. As surgeons, we have taken the Hippocratic Oath. The well being of all of our patients is central to what we do and what we are. As such, and as the history of medicine has shown, we are committed to advancing our technology, patient selection, and surgical techniques so that we can continue to enhance the quality of our patient’s lives,” Lindstrom added.

The meta-analysis, led by Kerry Solomon, M.D. at the Storm Eye Institute of the Medical Center of South Carolina, examines nearly 3,000 peer-reviewed articles published over the past 10 years in clinical journals from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The research employed the Ovid and PubMed data bases using the term “LASIK” and similar search terms. A total of 2,915 articles were identified. “We wanted every article we could find, up to and including our last search, which was done on January 8, 2008,” Dr. Solomon said.

“This survey goes back to literature published 10 years ago. In that time, there have been major technological advances, such as wavefront-guided LASIK and the introduction of special lasers to form a flap on the surface of the eye in preparation for the laser treatment. Coupled with better surgical techniques, and improved patient selection, we can say that modern LASIK is a mature procedure. It is important to note that its reliability and effectiveness have led to its adoption by the armed forces, in particular the US Navy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for improving the vision of its front-line pilots and astronauts,” Dr. Solomon said.

Key Findings from “LASIK: A Global Perspective on Patient Satisfaction”

• 95.4 percent of LASIK patients worldwide report satisfaction with the outcome of their procedure.
• Approximately the same percentage would recommend LASIK to a friend or would elect to undergo the procedure again.
• More than 95.2 percent of LASIK patients in the U.S. are satisfied with the outcome of their procedure.
• Outside the U.S., studies from France, India, Iran, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and The United Kingdom, report very similar patient satisfaction rates of about 95.6 percent.
• The total range of satisfaction rates in individual studies was from 87.2 percent to 100 percent.