Dose Cold Weather Affect Post Lasik Situation and Cause Red Eyes?

Dryness is most likely. During the post operative period, the eyes can be “dry” without feeling dry because the corneal nerves take time to regenerate. There are additional treatments for dry eyes, such as punctual plugs and Restasis. The corneal symptoms of dryness include redness, intermittent blurring (“drizzle on a windshield”), burning and even tearing. Think of chapped lips.

Basically, this whole issue got lots of press a few years ago, when the MD who was the Refractive Fellow under world-famous George Waring III, MD at Emory University in Atlanta, Keith Walter, published an article saying he had better postop results during certain seasons, based on the humidity

The lay press picked up this scientific article and publicized it, but with the wrong message, unfortunately, as they often do. instead of saying that good surgeons should control both temperature and humidity in the OR (laser suite) to make results more predictable and accurate, which was the take-home message, the public got the WRONG message that they should do surgery during certain seasons only, which is untrue!

More importantly is to hydrate and humidify postop, meaning drinking lots of water, using a humidifier, gel at night, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol until you're fully healed, which you can judge because then you'll be seeing normally, without visual fluctuation.  also use preservative free tears often, like every hour while awake for the first month postop, until your eyes aren't dry anymore (in noncutting LASEK) or occassionally for the rest of your life (in the cutting LASIK and IntraLase procedures) like i have to do post-LASIK myself!

This patients symptoms are probably due to dryness, she should lubricate, and they will go away in a month.

There is no question the air is drier right now than it will be in August. This dryness can effect the postoperative comfort a little, but will in no way effect the ultimate outcome. We supply all of our Lasik patients with an ample supply of artificial tears. We also encourage all patients in the winter months to drink alot of water and even possibly take supplemental omega 3 fish oil tablets to maintain a good tear flow while the eyes are healing.