Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site druak.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!mtuxo!drutx!druak!antics From: antics@druak.UUCP (GeigerL) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Radial Keratotomy Message-ID: <797@druak.UUCP> Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 17:22:46 EDT Article-I.D.: druak.797 Posted: Thu Oct 17 17:22:46 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 06:13:38 EDT Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver Lines: 26 "After about a year of follow-up [of radial keratotomy or pinwheel surgery for near-sightedness], results of this operation gave grounds for guarded optimism, with about 80% of patients achieving nearly normal vision without glasses. But as we stressed then, what really counts is the long-term benefit of such surgery. Last June, the results of a 4-year follow-up appeared in the Archives of Ophthalmology, and they shift our position toward guarded pessimism. Between 1 and 4 years after the operation, only 6% of the treated eyes retained the correction achieved by the operation. About 20% had shifted back toward nearsightedness, and over 70% had tended to become more farsighted. The drift away from normal vision was regarded as significant (enough to require correction with lenses) in about one-third of the patients. Surgical techniques have changed since this group of operations was performed. Carbon-steel blades have been replaced by diamond blades, and other aspects of diagnosis and treatment have presumably been improved. Even so, the basic message of the current study is an important one: good results after one year won't necessarily last a lifetime. Until we have hard facts about the long-term results of these newer techniques, there is no reason to assume that they will automatically be better." Reprinted without special permission form "The Harvard Medical School Health Letter", October 1985.