Hope For Astigmatism Sufferers

Written by John Taylor

Prior to the development of laser-assisted refractive surgery, the only method of treatment for folks with astigmatism was either glasses or contacts. Today the many laser eye surgery choices offered give astigmatic patients the opportunity to enjoy improved vision without the need for eyeglasses or contacts.

About one in six Americans, or 45 million people, have astigmatism, and about two-thirds of those folks also have myopia. Astigmatism causes your vision to be blurred at all distances, long and short and is the result of an asymmetrical cornea. It happens when your cornea has variances in its curvature at different points. Instead of being smooth all the way around, eyes with astigmatism have areas that are either steeper or flatter than others. In most cases, folks with astigmatism have it from birth, and the condition often also occurs with myopia or hyperopia. There are two types of astigmatism. If your cornea's shape is distorted, you have corneal asigmatism. If your lens is malformed, your problem is called lenticular astigmatism. Lenticular astigmatism is generally considered the more difficult form of astigmatism to treat by means of surgery.

Folks who have astigmatism often suffer from headaches, eyestrain and blurred vision. These vision problems can significantly impact your quality of life and may negatively impact your career choices, thus making a permanent solution to your astigmatism a desirable option. An eye doctor can determine if you have astigmatism with a simple eye exam using a keratoscope and videokeratoscope. These diagnostic tools are used to check the curvature of your cornea. The keratoscope projects rings of light onto the patient's cornea. Your doctor will observe how the light is reflected and from the spacing and shape of the rings he or she will be able to ascertain details concerning your astigmatism. A videokeratoscope is basically a keratoscope with a video camera attached. These devices are used in corneal topography, or the monitoring of change in the curvature of your cornea over time.

Eye surgeons consider astigmatism to be more difficult to correct than myopia or hyperopia, but laser-assisted refractive surgery can have some very positive results for folks with astigmatism. Most eye surgeons agree, however, that if your astigmatism is more than 2.00 diopters, the results of any laser-assisted refractive surgery may be negligible.

LASIK surgery is the overall most popular laser-assisted refractive surgery and it's also the most popular surgery for astigmatism in particular. In LASIK surgery, the doctor cuts a flap into the outer layer of the cornea, then uses an excimer laser to scuplt the corneal tissue beneath. Once the surgeon's done with the laser, he or she covers the area with the flap, which helps in the healing process. LASIK can smooth out the steep or flat parts in the cornea that give folks astigmatism.

Depending on the thickness of your corneal tissue, LASIK may not be the best option for you, however. Other treatments that create a smaller flap, or no flap, such as LASEK or PRK, may be better options for folks with little corneal tissue or other issues. Your eye doctor will be best suited to make this determination.

One side effect of using laser assisted refractive surgery to correct astigmatism is that it also corrects myopia, whether you need it or not, a phenomenon called the laser coupling effect. This basically means that if you don't have myopia, but do have astigmatism and use laser-assisted refractive surgery to correct your astigmatism, you may end up with hyperopia thanks to this effect. Folks with astigmatism who don't have myopia may want to consider another form of treatment, such as conductive keratoplasty, the implantation of a phakic intraocular lens, or refractive lens exchange. These other forms of surgery may provide you with the solution you're looking for.

Laser-assisted refractive surgery can allow patients to enjoy improved vision without having the hassle of keeping up with glasses or contact lenses. Like all surgeries, some risk is involved in laser-assisted refractive surgery. Before embarking on laser-assisted refractive surgery, you should consult with your doctor and examine all the potential complications these types of surgery pose regarding your unique health situation.