Treating High Astigmatism with Lasik

Yesterday I saw a 1 week post-op of a patient I did Lasik on for high astigmatism and myopia.  This very nice young man had 4.50 diopters of astigmatism in one eye plus nearsightedness, and 5.50 diopters plus nearsightedness in the other eye.  He was doing great fully corrected with 20/15 vision in one eye, and 20/25 in the other eye (this eye doesn’t do better than 20/25 even before the surgery).  He is so excited, it’s a huge change for him because he feels he has stable, clear vision unlike ever before. He said the cost was nothing compared to what he had gained.  I hear that a lot- when Lasik is done right the cost seems like nothing and people often tell me they would have happily paid twice as much for how much they loved their vision.  Makes my day when they are so happy….

I love performing Lasik on high astigmatism patients, it’s so rewarding because it makes such a huge impact on their life. Astigmatism is not easy to treat with glasses and contacts.  It’s harder to measure, glasses move destabilizing the correction, toric soft contacts move destabilizing correction, and many people don’t like wearing RGP contact lenses which are the only other choice for high astigmatism.  I personally believe that Lasik gives these patients the most stable, best vision they have ever had.  The Allegretto Wave Eye-Q is so fast that it is able to correct even high astigmatism patients in under 30 seconds of laser time, and it is extremely effective and accurate.