Quote

"To get rich, never risk your health. For it is the truth that health is the wealth of wealth."

-Richard Baker, American Congressman

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Freaking Laser Beams

Well, it's kind of all over the news, but if you haven't heard, a former FDA regulator, Dr. Morris Waxler, who was an early proponent of laser eye surgery, now thinks that the benefits of peeling your eye back and shooting a laser at it might be outweighed by the risks of the procedure.

Did you know that the word "laser" is an acronym, by the way? It stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, according to the article I read,

"Waxler's analysis of FDA data shows half of Lasik patients experience side effects and more than a third continue to need glasses or contacts."

But it goes on to state that another eye doctor dude had this to say -

"'In this day in age [sic] unless you have a really extreme prescription, it's unusual to develop glare or halo after surgery.' added Dr. Michael Walker of EYE-Q laser center in Fresno. Dr. Michael Walker is a Valley ophthalmologist and has performed Lasik surgery on more than 16,000 patients. He disagrees with Doctor Waxler's analysis because the data comes from the late 90's and that technology has improved dramatically over the years.

'It gets better every year, it certainly get faster and more refined but if I didn't believe the procedure were safe and effective I certainly wouldn't be doing it.' Dr. Walker added."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (not Radar)

Colin said...

Yikes, typo. Radar itself is an acronym! Thanks (Brendo).