05-04-2005, 08:33 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Varies
Posts: 4,802
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http://www.lasermyeye.org/forums/showthread.php?t=482
google turned up this forum. No telling what is truth and what is marketing.
Quote:
Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to modern laser eye surgery: (1) LASIK, which cuts a thick flap of tissue and carries certain unique short-term and long-term risks but which has remained popular with doctors and patients due to its convenience factors (less pain, faster visual recovery), and (2) surface ablation, where they don't cut a flap, they just remove the epithelium and apply the laser immediately underneath. These have the advantages that they escape many of the most serious complications associated with LASIK, but carry the disadvantages of slightly more pain, longer recovery, and potential for haze, so the methods are always being refined to try to make them better for patients. NoTouch is one of FOUR methods in this category. So if you are trying to avoid incisions, NoTouch is definitely not your only choice and it also does not have nearly as long a track record as some of the others.
The main distinction between the four surface ablation methods lies in how the epithelium is removed:
1) In PRK (the original surgery, developed in the 1980's), it is removed manually (i.e. scraped off);
2) In LASEK, it is softened with an alcohol solution and lifted;
3) In Transepithelial PRK (also called NoTouch) it is ablated (vaporised) with an excimer laser; and
4) In Epi-LASIK a living sheet of epithelium is lifted with a separator and replaced after surgery.
I was just catching up on my medical journals this weekend and read an interesting article comparing methods 1, 2, and 3. They actually found no statistically significant difference in the amount of pain or the visual results.
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