I had LASEK done on both eyes on August 6 by Julian Stevens.

I have been looking into laser eye surgery since about 1991, but had been consistently turned away as being in the too hard basket. Twice in 2002 I visited laser eye clinics and did the full basket of tests only to be turned away at the end. The last guy I saw in Harley Street was at least good enough to explain why. I had a difficult right eye with an irregular topography. It was more than the small amount of myopia, and more than the astigmatism, it was a very irregular surface. He went on to tell me that no commercial clinic in the world would be able to treat it with current technology, but there were two guys at Moorfields, Stevens and Gartry I think was the other, who were at the cutting edge globally and they might be able to help. Failing that I would have to contact a top university teaching hospital in the US to have any chance of getting laser correction.

It was 6 months from first contacting Mr Stevens office to actually getting an appointment, but thankfully only 6 days later I could have the surgery. Stevens seemed to have no problem with the irregular right eye and even identified the likely cause of it, a droopy right eyelid. Because of the unusual right eye surface, LASEK was to be the operation.

The surgery itself was a bit freaky, looking at a red flashing light while you see various instruments scraping across your eye.... it was a bit like I imagine looking up at an ice hockey stick moving across ice to look, as if viewed looking upwards from beneath the ice.
I had both eyes done at the same time and the whole show must have taken 20 minutes all up.

Results are excellent. 5 days after the op, vision was at least as good as I gould get with contacts or glasses. Make no mistake, Stevens is world class. I read up a bit on Moorfields and on Stevens in the 6 months it took to get my appointment. There are, at best, a mere handful of eye surgeons in the world with the reputation of Stevens. You combine this with the equipment in Moorfields (they quite literally have the cutting-edge, very best wavefront scanners and lasers, which you wont even see in the most expensive private clinics for 2-3 years) and I would have done the business at just about any price. In reality, the price compares favourably with more poorly equipped Harley Street clinics who dont even come close to the reputation of Stevens as a surgeon.

The only unpleasant surprise for me came with the removal of the protective contact lens, on the 13th (2 days ago). Immediately prior to that moment my vision was excellent, and all the discomfort had passed, with the exception of feeling like I had dryish contact lenses in my eyes. I wasnt aware that removal of the protective contacts would set of another couple of days of discomfort.

All in all, if you can put up with the significant queue ahead of you to see Stevens, the fact that for a lot of the time he is lecturing in Europe and the US on some of the pioneering work that he does, and the fact that when he is around he is invariably seeming rushed, then I recommend him to anyone who is looking for a top class surgeon or who has been put in the 'too hard basket' by commercial clinics.