Thursday January 18, 2001

CK Eye Surgery

Your eyes. They are one of your most prized possessions. But when the world starts to go out of focus, don't think about them until things go out of focus.

But soon there may be a far-out new option for the far-sighted called Conductive Keratoplasty or CK surgery. No cutting or lasers here, instead doctors use radio waves to correct vision. Los Angeles doctor Robert Maloney was one of the first to perform this experimental surgery. He says, "The procedure takes about two minutes per eye. It's very fast. It's painless, quick and no discomfort.

Far-sighted means your cornea is too flat. You can't see things close up and your distance vision isn't good either. Sixty-one-year-old Ty Bedford is far-sighted and fed-up. He says, "I had to carry two pairs of glasses. One for reading and one for driving."

So now, after going through a battery of tests, he is about to have CK surgery. The eye is numbed and marked with a series of dots. Dr. Maloney then touches the dots with a probe that's about as thick as a human hair. Dr. Maloney explains "It goes one-half millimeter below the surface of the eye that's where the radio energy is applied."

As he moves around the dots, heat from the radio waves shrink the tissue, squeezing the center of the eye like a belt and creating a curved cornea and correcting vision. No cutting means fewer complications.

In just minutes Ty can almost read the whole eye chart. "I can see everything except those real small letters underneath the eye chart."

Three weeks later his vision continues to improve. "It's as good as it could possibly be. I mean, I can see, I can see to drive. I don't need my glasses anymore at all."

He says the procedure was less painful than a dental exam and there was virtually no recovery. For Ty Bedford seeing definitely was believing!

Some possible CK surgery side effects are glare and halos and doctors aren't sure if the vision improvement is permanent. But they say you can repeat the procedure safely.