Light streaks

[poolmaniac6]

I want to preface this topic by stating that I am not crazy ( at least that my story and I'm sticking to it). 6 months post surgery and I have been noticing some very annoying streaks at night since about 1 month after surgery. By streaks I mean that if I happen to be driving at night I see streaks from headlights and stoplights everytime that I blink. It seems as though the streak connects my eyes to the light source. This also happens when I watch TV in a dimly lit room. Everytime I blink the TV screen seemingly streaks back to eyes. Let me say that I by no means just staring at all headlights of oncoming cars when I am driving at night. It is just that everytime I blink ... BAM .. the headlight and I become one. This can at times be extremely annoying. I do not remember having these issues before surgery and have tried to find out why this is happening. Anyone notice this or is seeing streaks when a person blinks quite normal to some degree??

Glen, you had mentioned to me in an earlier post if this "symptom" gets better when I add an eyedrop. It actually gets worse - the streaks start looking like I am at a laser light show.

Any thoughts?????

[LasikExpert]

Of course you need to discuss this with your doctor, but I'd focus on testing your tear film for an appropriate level of lipid (oil) and aqueous (water). Additionally verify that the punctum is able to appropriate drain away the tears.

[Rainora]

Yeah, I get them too, always have. It doesn't happen when my eyes are wide open. The more I squint, the more I get those beams of light. Eye drops or crying makes it really bad for a few seconds. I kind of thought it was normal until I asked my boyfriend, if he gets them too. He was somewhat puzzled, so I guess not everyone sees them.

[poolmaniac6]

I recently had a wavefront done on my eyes. It showed a really high spherical abberation. Any chance that this is causing these streaks or starburst?

Also tried some soft contacts but when I put them on everything, no matter what distance, became blurry. Only had them in for about 15 minutes but I did notice that the starburst were quite a bit smaller when they were in. Wish I could understand what is going on. I suppose I could try RGP contacts, not too sure about this as my eyes are really sensative and quite dry still.

[LasikExpert]

I recently had a wavefront done on my eyes. It showed a really high spherical aberration. Any chance that this is causing these streaks or starburst?

Elevated Spherical Aberration (SA) indicates that the center of the optics has a different refractive error than the periphery. You may still be myopic (nearsighted, shortsighted) at the edge, but have good correction in the center. SA often presents with symptoms of halos around light sources. Streaks and starbursting tends to indicate a dry or rough surface, however SA can cause or exacerbate the causes of starbursting.

The contacts probably reshaped the outer edge of the cornea enough to change the SA and change your overall refractive error. When you did the manifest refraction (which is better, one or two?) your optics included both clear vision and vision affected by SA and you compensated. Change the SA by changing the cornea and your refractive error will change.

Has your surgeon provided an explanation for the problems and/or discussed enhancement surgery?

[poolmaniac6]

We briefly discussed the possibility of an enhancement, which would be done only after the one year mark form original surgery. This would be a few months away. It sounds like if I was to do this it would be the customized PRK with a bigger treatment zone than the first surgery. I'm a little concerned about developing haze and possible overcorrection as I am -1.25 in one and -.50 in the other, with small astigmatism in both. Still hoping some of this issues clear up but as each month passes I am kind of losing hope of that happening.

[LasikExpert]

PRK on a Lasik flap undoubtedly would require Mitomycin C, which would reduce the probability of corneal haze to about nil.

[scherry]

Hi Poolmanic6,
What is your outcome so far? I am having the same problem but I am 1 month post op stage, hoping it will go away. Thanks.

[poolmaniac6]

I am close to 10 months post surgery and still see the huge starburst and the streaks or arcs. The arcs can be very bothersome and can make driving at night quite difficult. Actually make it quite hard to just enjoy myself at night. I still have yet to find anyone to give me an actual reason as to why I see the arcs when I blink( also notice them if my eyes are just closed a wee bit) My best guess is that it has something to do with the angle of the transition between fully corrected area and the untreated cornea being too steep. Might also have to do with depth of ablation(due to higher myopia) and the transition zone being only 1.5mm.

My scotopic pupil size also is between 7.0 -8.0mm when meaured with the pupilometer??. This, I believe, is causing the starbursting due to my optical treatment area being only 5.5mm. My pre-surgery pupil was supposedly 5.5mm when measured, but I know for a fact it was not measured with the pupilometer which has given me a higher pupil size. This, quite frankly, really pisses me off because I was given NO WARNING of these potential problems due to pupil size. I had app. 500 microns of cornea to start with with so I don't know if I even have enough for an "enhancement" that would be customized.

I hope that there is some sort of technology that will be available someday, that is actually proven reliable, to help make retreatments that will give a larger optical zones and treat high spherical abb.

Sorry to say that my problems have not gotten better but I do hope your situation does.

[scherry]

Thanks for the information. I too am seeing streaks or arcs, not limit to night time but day time as well, happens when I look directly into any bright light source, i.e., exposed overhead light bulbs, sunlight coming thru windows, etc. I am still hoping this will go away..

[poolmaniac6]

Scherry

I notice all of the daytime garbage also. Will also see the arcs if I happen to be looking not directly at the light source, say my head is pointing forward and I just move my eyes down to look at something and I see the arcs. Another lovely side effect of my surgery.

[eh427]

I'm in the same boat as scherry and poolmaniac6. The light beams appear when I blink slowly while looking at a strong light source. I had lasik done 2 months ago. My prescription was -1.25 with 0.5 astigmatism in both eyes. Im now 20/15- in both eyes, however I still have refractive errors (halos, ghosting, star bursting, light beams). Has anyone else noticed these light beams?

[LasikExpert]

Light aberrations when blinking or squinting would be expected. You are changing the tear film and/or corneal shape with these acts. That will change the way light is focused into the eye.

Starbursting or halos during daylight strongly indicates a rough corneal surface. This may be due to a rough surface created by the laser or created by making the Lasik flap, but most often these symptoms are related to Lasik induced dry eye.

Dry eye is the most common reported complication of Lasik and although it commonly resolves during the normal six month healing period, it can last longer. We have articles about Lasik dry eye and dry eye treatment that you may find helpful.

Report these problems to your respective doctors and try to note when they occur. It would be helpful if they can be reproduced while in the exam.

[eh427]

I went to the back to the place where I had lasik performed (about 6 months ago) to report my light streaks. They did a visual inspection of the eyes and concluded that everything was as it should be (no dry eyes, good healing etc..). The doctor said that the light streaks were normal and that they would perform some corneal scans at the one year mark to make sure nothing was wrong. The doctor even went as far as saying that people without lasik get light streaks like the ones I described. The problem is that I never use to get these before lasik and now they are extremely annoying to me. Has anyone had this issue resolved yet? And could you please describe what was done to resolve the issue. I get the feeling that the doctor has never encountered this type of problem before.

[boston]

Dry eye is the most common reported complication of Lasik and although it commonly resolves during the normal six month healing period, it can last longer.

Lasik Expert, man I really hope there are cases where this still continues to get better even after normal 6 month healing period.

I got Lasik last July, about 8 months ago. A month after surgery my doc told me during a routine check-up that my eyes were "a little" dry, so I should use eye drops regularly. I didnt really think much of it because my eyes felt good, and had some other stuff going on at the time also, and they weren't bothering me so I didnt take it seriously.
It wasnt until I went out to Arizona in about November for a few weeks when my eyes bothered me for a few days here and there for the first time, but even then I didnt draw a connection. Then back in Boston starting in about January when winter really started to set in, is when I realized the cold dry weather was causing it, and my eyes starting to bother me. Also when I was in Mexico City around New Years time, although when I went out to the coast they were fine. But then back to Mexico City, irritation again.
Its been about 6 weeks of this intermitently bothering me now.

I really hope its not uncommon for this to continue to improve, and I hope there are many cases out there of people who continue to have dry eyes get better even after the normal six months, and continue to get better to 12-18 months after.

Thanks a lot for your help and advice.
I hope I do not have to live with this nusance every winter now for the rest of my life, or everytime I go to Utah now to visit relatives, or anytime I'm in the arid mountains again or something.
This is something they should let patients know about before they undergo a Lasik procedure, and not just with a quick sign on the dotted line right 5 minutes before you're about to go in, after you've paid, gone through all the prep exams, and questions, and met with everyone, and everything like that and are just waiting to go in for the procedure, like they did with me. "Oh, and sign this form now too Ben. You must copy this short paragraph into this box." "Oh no though, it should be fine."
What a business scam! One of the biggest Lasik firms in Boston too!! Advertised in all the local papers for years with the biggest and best ads!

~B