Lasik eye surgery; low but profound risk – The Wall Street Journal

If you're considering Lasik surgery for reasons as banal as being irritated at constantly losing your contact lenses or being able to more easily play sport, here's a cautionary tale worth reading. There's a conservatively estimated one percent chance you'll suffer post-operative pain so bad that some sufferers have committed suicide. This risk percentage could rise as awareness of neuropathic corneal pain, post-Lasik-surgery, grows and more people seek help. Ophthalmologists are starting to diagnose this rare condition more frequently as case studies are written up and the literature base widens, increasing clinician-awareness. However, ophthalmologists are not trained to treat neurological disease and neurologists are not trained to treat eye diseases, so too many patients fall between the cracks, going from pillar to post in search of relief. Being told to regularly apply eye drops is enough to send you over the edge on its own. I googled the number of neuro-ophthalmologists in South Africa and came up with two – one in Cape Town and one in Pietermaritzburg. There are five altogether in Africa. One presumes they'd know what to do. Not that specific treatment takes the condition away entirely. Until more research is done, treatment is at best palliative. – Chris Bateman