What percentage of Lasik Patients at age 40+ lose their best corrected vision and need their vision corrected Again?
The majority of refractive surgeons say about one to three percent of patients will need to have an enhancement or touch up of their laser vision correction procedure. Usually the enhancement procedure is done within a one to two year period of having prior laser surgery.
The goal of any refractive surgeon should be careful patient selection. Your surgeon and his staff must take the time to perform all necessary diagnostic testing and carefully consider the treatment options to deliver the best possible results.
We have many diagnostic tests in place that are done preoperatively such as reviewing your age, eye health and patient health history prior to having your original LASIK or PRK procedure. A discussion about your distance vision being stable pre-op and post-op must be had. Although we cannot predict how your body heals, we can look at your age and your eye health and discuss presbyopia which is a condition of aging of the lens in the eye causing the need for reading glasses that worsens as you get older. Distance enhancement after age 40 is about 1 percent in Dr. Holzman’s outcome studies.
In patients that are age 18 to 21, the eyes are often still changing. Reviewing patient history and ensuring the patients refraction is stable is key no matter what your age is. Remember, Enhancements have many of the same risks as the initial surgery so they should be considered only if medically necessary and at the suggestion of the surgeon. As with any medical procedure, weighing the risk verses the benefit is important in making the decision to have a touch up procedure.
