Lasers correct sight defects

Press, 26 November 1987, Page 12

Lasers correct sight defects

Spectacles and contact lenses may soon be things of the past, reports LIZ HODGKINSON

Around 24 million people in Britain wear — or at least are prescribed — glasses. But in a few years’ time spectacles could become as oldfashioned as ear trumpets or iron lungs. Even contact lenses could find themselves confined to museums of medical curiosities in the near future. The instrument that promises to make spectacles redundant is the laser. Scientists have now

developed a new type of ultra-violet laser which can correct the focus of the eyes in a small, outpatient operation. A computer can record the curvature of the eyes, then calculate the level of adjustment needed. It also directs the laser beam. “There is every possibility that this technique will be able to replace spectacles for thousands of people,” says a British consultant surgeon, John Carruth, founder of the

British Medical Laser I Association. “The procedure uses a i completely new type of I laser called an excimea i laser, which has already proved itself in other < areas, such as getting out ; clots from arteries. “It is basically intended for those who are born with short sight, but there is no reason why it can’t eventually be used for those who develop eye defects through age. In fact, it’s not too farfetched to predict that in time people could have their failing eyesight corrected every couple of years or so by laser

beam.” The laser normalises eyesight by altering the lens of the eye itself, and so correcting the focus. The operation is carried out by local anaesthetic, and need only take 10 to 12 minutes. But it is very high-precision, says John Carruth, and could only be performed by an ophthalmic surgeon who was also a laser expert. “In the wrong hands, it could create a hole in the eye,” he said. But you can’t as yet walk into a hospital and get the laser treatment. Professor John Marshall, of the Institute of Ophthal-

mology in London, who has pioneered research into the technique in this country, has so far carried out experiments only on animals. It will probably be about two years before human experiments are conducted. At first, it will probably be used for young people with very severe eye defects, and will only gradually become available to those who fancy life without glasses. “But it constitutes a major breakthrough in eye treatments, and I’ve no doubt that in time it will make glasses an encumbrance of the past.