Laser Eye Surgery: Stories

The VISX laser printout is meaningless, and is often wrong, because there is no way for the surgeon to choose what procedure was performed. I own a VISX laser myself, which I bought for $500,000. What is says on the printout depends on which version of software the machine is running. The fact that the printout says LASIK when you had PRK is meaningless. I testified in court as to this exact issue last week, because some idiotic plaintiff's lawyer was trying to use the VISX printout to "prove" that the surgeon performed the wrong procedure. I am certain you had a PRK. Just ask your surgeon. He will not be mad, and will just explain things as I did. But you should have had a LASEK or epiLASEK in my opinion, not a PRK, as those are the advanced versions of PRK that were invented at Harvard when I was a resident, and are thus called Advanced Surface Ablations to distinguish them from the non-advanced PRK. PRK is more painful and heals more slowly than the newer ASA procedures, but as long as you don't scar, the results are the same. So don't worry, you'll be fine!

The operative report for custom procedures will usually say LASIK, as the CustomVue procedure is FDA approved for LASIK. As surgeons, we will perform CustomVue PRK procedures as well, off label. I would speak with your eyeMD if you have any concerns about the procedure that you underwent.