Ultralase

I visited this clinic and was initially very keen to go along and get my eyes treated, especially in light of my brother having had PRK 10 years ago with the obvious side effects of having this done in the early days. LCRS are keen to enhance fears of laser surgery and base their opinion on PRK treatments of 10 years ago and all the horror stories ensuing this early treatment. They do not tend to answer questions as directly as I would have liked and based their dislike of laser on a small internal sample of patients that they had treated a long time ago - surely this must have been PRK patients as I don't believe they ever went in for Lasik. I found it hard to research RK (which is what their "microsurgery" is) as it is not really performed any longer globally. There is a good reason for this, as I found: For LCRS treatment go to HYPERLINK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ and search "PERK AND cornea" which will give you the only properly conducted long term study led by Professor George Waring at Emory University (formerly the "champion" of RK in the USA). Professor Waring himself has not performed RK for at least 5 years and only performs excimer laser surgery. I cannot stress enough the long term risks of this treatment with a very high percentage of people going long sighted as these studies show. In addition, the eyesight will fluctuate daily. Finally, something I found very useful was contacting other people on this website. All at present have good daytime vision - note that the long sighted vision progresses over time in these studies so most people won't have a problem for some time with that.The universal problem that everyone has though is night time star burst. The reason for this is the light enters the eyes refracted through the incisions which enter the field of vision when the pupil dilates at night. I had responses from many LCRS patients listed here and all have starburst! They get used to this, but current day lasik is so far in advance of this treatment it is quite unbelievable that anyone would opt to get RK/microsurgery done in possession of the full facts. I next went to the London Vision Clinic to find out the real risks/benefits of current Lasik. Note that their rating is 100% on this site. They really seem to be the most up to date in this field and I will post there once I have researched current lasik to my satisfaction, and made a decision whether to get surgery done or not based on the current day facts.

Viv - in response to your enquiry about patients who have been treated at our Manchester clinic, try clicking on www.TheGiftOfSight.com. If you select the "Search" function, then choose "Manchester" from the drop-down list of Ultralase clinics, you can read the testimonials of some of the patients treated there.

An update following my 6 week check-up after having bi-lateral LASEK (on 15/11/03):- Still 20/20 which is good. Slight problem with looking at very near objects but I've been told that it is early days and that this is due to the slight over correction. I am seeing am improvement day by day..

Dear staff and readers, I am slightly concerned over the validity of some of the postings put forward on to this, otherwise excelent website. I have been considering laser surgery for a while now and have been studing this site to hopefully help me select the best clinic, for me, to undertake surgery with. I therefore think it is of upmost importance that 'just real people's experiences' are included and that potential patients aren't being lured into a particular clinic by unoriginal or fictional postings. Looking at 'Ultralase's' postings for 19 jan and back 3/4 pages, it seems there is a 5-star, two-lined 'FANTASTIC' person who keeps popping up! Going back further and this phantom can be seen again using an almost identical style of english, a short sentance and of course 5 stars! I have been really considering going to this clinic as the apparantly genuine postings have painted a good picture of the results but am finding it increasing hard to believe which ones are to be believed?! Are the postings found here writen by real ultralase patients? or is there a team of 'e-mailers' who are trying to market their clinic with one member whose writting style is obvious. Tim Poole.

Having followed the ULTRALASE postings for over a year now, there seems to be an unlikely number of 'one liner' entries, that sound much like adverts. These entries are pushing their score up. Assuming they are real, then this is fair. In my own opinion however this appears to be Ultralase marketing, and i dont like it.

I can assure David Williams and Tim that I AM a real person and AM very satisfied with my results. (See my posting 16/12/03.) If the Webmaster can arrange it I will gladly correspond with them by email and try to convince them! I had a 6 week check up at Ultralase, Tottenham Court Road, yesterday and they pronounced themselves very pleased with my progress. I still have a small problem with the tear film, but, I am told, this will improve over the next few weeks. I will post again in 3 months time after my next check up. I have been using my pc and driving regularly for 5 weeks. I suffer from haloes around lights at night, particularly orange street lights, but this has improved a lot from the first week. If any one is in any doubt about proceeding with Lasek, having had it recommended by a suitable clinic, I have to say "Go for it!". It has changed my life in so many, often small, ways and I don't regret having Lasek for one minute! (I was just wondering if David and Tim are real!) Piers Evans (A Real Person!)

Anyone know anything about the Newcastle clinic - am thinking of laser eye surgery and would like to hear of anyone's experience from this clinic.

I just saw the very negative comment made by Ros about LCRS. How can he write such a hateful comment? How can he, as LASIK advocat, say many Microsurgey patients will have problems in the future? How many years experience do we have with LASIK? Maybe five? RK has been around for decades. More importantly, the Phakic Lens Implants offered by LCRS are for many patients with high refractive errors the ONLY way to have their vision corrected. Lens implants have been around for ca. 50 years and are routinely done for cateract patients. I have implants myself, done by LCRS, and I have no complaints. I admit I have halos at night on one eye but I find this very acceptable. Even if someone had offered me to do LASIK on my eyes, at -10D I would have said No. The excimer laser would have had to remove much too much corneal tissue. May I also mention to Ros and all readers that in the field of refractive surgery it is easy to find some study that supports ones opinion. I could easily mention some that support RK and IOLs over LASIK. Sorry Ros, but Implants are the future. Go and have your LASIK done.

(See my previous postings back to December 2003) My last check up, a couple of weeks ago, showed that my eyes had regressed slightly from 0 Right and -1.75 Left to -1.25R and 3.00 L, including +0.75 R and +0.50 L for astigmatism so I am now wearing specs again. It might seem disappointing to some, but having come down from -10.25 +3.75 R and -11.25 +3.00 L, the result today is very impressive. I have not worn glasses for 4 months so was obviously able to cope with every day situations, but the details were missing so here I am! The cost of the new lenses is a lot less and they weigh about half so there is a long term cost benefit and greater comfort! My corneas healed perfectly and I have had no problems apart from occasional "dry eye" so, overall, I recommend laser surgery to anyone, irrespective of prescription, but always do plenty of research and get at least two opinions from different clinics and don't be driven by cost alone. I will post again after my next check up in six months.

Been thinking about having 'Lazer' for ages. Wish I'd had it done sooner. What a difference it's made. FANTASTIC!!!