High Hopes For Newest Eye Surgery

Laser eye surgery has been widely available for more than a decade. But now newer lasers are producing better results than ever before. And as Dr. Emily Senay reported for The Early Show, it's a development that could change the minds of patients who have been on the fence.

Daniel Peacock, 34, deliberated for years before deciding to have laser eye surgery to correct his very nearsighted vision. "When it first started coming out, I was dying to get it," Peacock said. "I was always just a little reluctant, due to the unknown and long-term effects."

Doctors recommended the laser procedure known as wavefront guided correction, in which computer measurements take away any guesswork.

"So here we're using computer analysis to really define what the prescription is and what the problems are in the eye," explained Dr. Barrie Soloway. "In the past, it was 'which is better, one or two?' We would kind of measure in the office and find that one lens — kind of like eyeglasses, so to speak, and we would carve into the eye to reshape it."

This newer surgery eliminates most of the common troubles with conventional LASIK surgery, says Soloway. "With the wavefront guided correction, we're able to control a lot of the problems that we've had in the past with starbursts or night vision problems."

Soloway assured Peacock that within 24 hours, his old eyeglasses would be nothing but a souvenir. "I've got your old glasses. These won't work anymore, but you may want to put them in your scrapbook or something," he said.

While this laser procedure can help patients see distance, another new surgery can help patients see close up, a very common challenge for people in their 40s.

"Usually as patients get to be about 45 years old, even if they've never worn glasses their whole life, they start having trouble with reading," said Soloway.

That was the case for Clare Palamara, who described how her vision started to deteriorate.

"You go to open the telephone book and you can't read the numbers and it was frustrating," she said. "I'm a teacher as well so I'm constantly referring to text and so it just became an issue."

Palamara learned about Food and Drug Administration trials for a new procedure called scleral spacing surgery, designed to eliminate the need for reading glasses.

"We're seeing great results," Soloway said of the new process. "We're still getting some patients who don't get much of a result, but we are seeing 80 or 90 percent of patients with improved near vision and lots of our patients able to read newspaper, magazines, work on the computer, without reading glasses at all."

Kevin O'Brien had the surgery two years ago and couldn't be happier with the outcome.

"Before the procedure, if someone asked me to look up a phone number, unless I held it in perfect sunlight about arms length away, it was difficult," he said. "Now, when I want to see something, I don't think about how I have to see it. I just pick it up and look at it."

Palamara is looking forward to a similar experience.

"The convenience of going on the computer and not having to worry about whipping out glasses or anything, it's going to be a new life," she told Senay.

Scleral spacing surgery is expected to be approved by the FDA within two to three years. The results have been excellent, but Senay says if you're in the 10-20 percent that don't see any improvement, the procedure is completely reversible.

To learn more about Dr. Barrie Soloway's eye care practice, visit www.ihateglasses.com or the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary at www.nyee.edu.