LASIK Surgery Safe For Children

According to the study done by Osama Ibrahim, MD, Pediatric LASIK is safe and effective for the children. In the World Ophthalmology Congress he announces that, over 10 years of followup on LASIK in children has shown that this procedure is safe and stable.

The study was done on 264 eyes of 264 patients. He said that the parameter of the study was the ability to wear spectacles, best corrected visual acuity, and the stability of the procedure.

Preoperatively about one third of the patients could see 20/100 or better and majority had of BCVA of less than 20/100.

But after LASIK they were able to achieve to 27% of corrected vision. That makes of 20/20. About half were able to see 20/40 and 2/3 were able to see 20/100. Most important thing was no one lost any BCVA rather the majority of patients gained lines.

According to him “"Stability was very interesting," Dr. Ibrahim said. "There was reasonable stabilization up to 3 years, and then when they reached the age of puberty and normal growth, there was additional regression up to 10 years."

The surprising fact of the stability of the patients having residual myopia was that the patients who have received over correction had less regression than compared to the patients who havn't received the operation.

Moreover he said that "Remember that pediatric LASIK is not to get rid of glasses. It's not to avoid the occlusion therapy, as most of the parents would love, and it's not to stop the progression of myopia. And definitely it's not for bilateral patients. It's only to help these poor patients to correct their anisometropia and help them to wear the spectacles