 
|
|||||||||||||
              
|
A new laser technique for farsightedness
Tuesday, December 05, 2000 By Anita Srikameswaran, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Local eye surgeons are now offering an incision-free laser technique for farsightedness.
In laser thermokeratoplasty, or LTK, the laser beam heats a ring of tissue around the center of the eye to tighten collagen fibers there. That squeeze steepens the central cornea and corrects hyperopia, a condition in which objects are blurry whether close up or far away. Each eye is treated in a few seconds.
Unlike Lasik, the new technique doesn't cut a flap into the cornea or remove any tissue, so the risk of complications is quite low.
"You just put your chin in a chin rest and the laser does its thing," said Dr. Deepinder Dhaliwal, chief of refractive surgery for the Laser/Vision Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "It's very, very safe."
About 77 million people in the United States are farsighted, making the condition slightly more common than myopia or nearsightedness. In June, the Food and Drug Administration approved the laser equipment, made by Sunrise Technologies, for the "temporary" reduction of hyperopia from +0.75 up to + 2.5 diopters in patients aged 40 and older.
"You get a regression of effect, meaning that over time the effect of surgery lessens," Dhaliwal explained.
She added that similar regression occurs with Lasik and PRK for farsightedness, but the relative simplicity of LTK means it could be more easily repeated a few years after the initial procedure.
The UPMC vision center is part of a new multicenter clinical trial of LTK for people who have up to +5.6 diopters of farsightedness. The cost for participants is $1,250 per eye, which includes initial assessments and follow-up visits. For information, call 412-647-2917.
People who are candidates for LTK but are not eligible for the trial must pay $1,950 per eye, which is the same cost the center charges for Lasik and other refractive procedures. A discount to $1,750 per eye is available to people who are members of the UPMC Health Plan or who are employees of the university or medical center.
According to Ed Coghlan, an executive at Sunrise Technologies, the technique is also being offered by opthalmologists at the Refractive Institute in Pleasant Hills.
A procedure to correct farsightedness without using a laser may soon become an option, pending FDA approval. In conductive keratoplasty, or CK, a radio frequency probe is placed against the eye to heat the collagen fibers for reshaping of the cornea.
|
||||||||||||
