PORTLAND, Oregon, November 20, 2009, /Journal of Cataract and
Refractive Surgery/ -- A controversial claim that Lasik is
safer than contact lenses has been re-evaluated with less
conclusive results.
An announcement in October 2006 by a professor of
ophthalmology at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
that Lasik was statistically safer than contact lenses was met
with much criticism. OHSU researchers looked at the issue anew
and have found that depending upon major assumptions of key
variables over 30 years, Lasik does not always appear to be
safer than contact lenses.
The model's conclusions were highly sensitive to changes in
several variables tested, especially risk for post-Lasik
ectasia, risk for early vision loss after Lasik, and risk for
contact lens–related keratitis (which correlated with type of
lenses worn). Rigid gas-permeable lenses were safer than Lasik
in every analysis. The safety of Lasik exceeded that for
daily-wear soft lenses only when assumptions were most favorable
to Lasik, whereas the safety of Lasik always exceeded that for
extended-wear lenses except when assumptions were least
favorable to Lasik.
