Having been tempted by laser eye surgery for well over a decade I decided to take the plunge and see if my eyes were suitable. After reading the positive comments on this web site I decided to have a consultation with Accuvision and another clinic where a colleague had been treated. I was much more impressed with the team at Accuvision who spent longer with me, explained the procedure and possible consequences in detail and answered all my questions.

I then decided to find out more for myself about the different types of laser and their advantages. There is lots of information on the internet – some of the best sites are those for eye professionals such as Eurotimes, Ophthalmology Times and Review of Ophthalmology. Here you can find out about the clinical trials carried out by eye surgeons around the world who have been using the Allegretto flying spot laser which Accuvision use since 2001 and what they thought of this latest technology. In clinical trials more than 50% of patients actually gained one or two lines of best corrected vision ie. were able to see better post Lasik than they did when their vision was corrected with glasses or contact lenses. Surgeons were impressed by the accuracy and speed of the laser and one commented that his results were the best ever experienced with any laser.
I also found studies by surgeons comparing broad beam with flying spot or scanning lasers and they all concluded that superior and more accurate results were achieved with flying spot lasers and that they would eventually become the industry standard.

The key points that I discovered about Allegretto were these :-

The energy profile is Gaussian rather than the top hat or flat profile used in older broad beam lasers. This Gaussian profile creates a smoother corneal surface and takes away less corneal tissue per diopter of correction which means the visual recovery time is faster, there will be less aberrations (ie.night vision problems and loss of contrast sensitivity) and no risk of corneal ectasia.

The narrow beam at 0.95mm is an advantage because it gives the surgeon the ability to customise the ablation (tissue removal) profile both according to ablation zone diameter ie. to match your dilated pupil size and also to vary the ablation zone to address pre-existing irregular corneal shape.

Unlike other lasers, Allegretto is designed to produce a prolate (closer to the normal shaped cornea) rather than an oblate profile which lessens the possibility of any night vision problems or loss of crispness of vision.

The laser is extremely fast which means that the surface of the tissue does not get a chance to dry out which would cause problems with healing and possibly affect the end result of your surgery and is coupled with a closed loop tracking system with a very fast response time.

Obviously the team operating the laser are just as important and I felt confident that the staff at Accuvision were highly competent and had been achieving good results.

So now to the important bit – the end result. I wore glasses from the age of 8 to 18 – remember those snazzy NHS frames with the wire ends that curled around your ears – and then hard gas permeable contact lenses for the next 21 years. My prescription was –9.00 and –3.75 which made it very difficult to tolerate wearing glasses because of the difference in image size in each eye. You have to stop wearing contact lenses before having a consultation and treatment to allow the eyes to return to their natural shape. I had assessments at 3 and 6 weeks out of gas permeable contact lenses and was then advised that this was long enough out of lenses to proceed with treatment but the length of time will vary from person to person.
I had non wavefront guided Lasik treatment on 17 February at a cost of £3600. I believe that the cost of treatment at Accuvision varies from £3000 up to £5000. The procedure was very quick and completely painless and certainly nothing to worry about. I had slight soreness about 2 hours later which disappeared almost immediately. I had to wear bandage soft contact lenses for 48 hours to help keep my corneal flaps in position as they were hinged from the bottom of the eye rather than the top. This meant that I had very foggy vision for 24 hours and needed to be accompanied to the first check up. As soon as the contact lenses were removed my vision improved and continued to clear slowly. On the second day I spent a little time working on a computer which made my vision mistier and my eyes were quite tired so I would suggest if you work a lot with computers you might need to take several days off work.

My eyes have felt a little dry but no more than when wearing contact lenses if that is what you are used to.
My prescription was –9.00 and –3.75. At the first day check up my vision was tested and found to be 20/20 . The initial reading for my prescription was –1.00 and –0.25. This may well change as my vision stabilises over the next three months but even at this level I am absolutely delighted.
My vision is now BETTER than it was with both glasses and rigid contact lenses.

My two major worries about having Lasik surgery were loss of crispness of vision which definitely had NOT happened and night vision. I am experiencing some minor haze around street lamps at night but this may well clear up in the next few weeks and my night vision is clearer now than when wearing rigid contact lenses which always cause their wearers problems at night with glare and starbursts from artificial light sources.
I was also worried about the corneal thickness that would be left in my right eye and the risk of ectasia. The industry standard is not to go below 250 microns but Accuvision state they will not go below 300 microns and I was left with 323 microns which I am very happy with. Other lasers could also have achieved the same end result but would have taken away more tissue. The team actually confirm that the microkeratome has cut the correct flap thickness before proceeding with treatment as an extra safeguard.


So, for me it was definitely the right decision to go ahead and have Lasik surgery but I am NOT advocating that everyone rush out and have it done. Results are not predictable and there are many people out there who have ended up with worse vision than they started with and in some cases are no longer able to work. Some bad results are due to the patient eg. your cornea could form scar tissue through no fault of the surgeon but other problems are arising because of lack of expertise/knowledge and in some cases treating patients who are not suitable.

One of the reasons I chose to use Accuvision was because around 30% of their patients have been turned away from other clinics who refuse to treat them because they are viewed as being difficult cases with a lower chance of obtaining a satisfactory result eg. high prescriptions, thin corneas.

If you are interested in having Lasik performed I would say that you must research the subject thoroughly, spend a long time considering the pros and cons and find a clinic with the ideal combination of expert staff using the best possible technology. That is what I firmly believe I found at Accuvision and I have no hesitation in recommending them.