Foreword

“When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, Pray that the road to is long,

full of adventure, full of knowledge,

Pray that the summer mornings are many, when with such pleasure,

With such joy will enter ports seen for the first time…”

As this passage quoteswritten by a famous Greek poet Constantine Cavafy -I find many similarities with its content with the long itinerary of the LASIK from its birth, in the early 1990’s as a rudimentary technique to what it has become nowadays a well thought, elaborated, and world wide accepted one.

A decade after the introduction of the LASIK technique in the refractive surgery, a number of issues have been addressed. The technique has reached its maturity. The initial enthusiasm was replaced by a more conservative approach, which contributes to a better patient selection and the reduction of intraand post-operative LASIK complications leading to increasing patients’ satisfaction and physicians’ confidence.

In this concept, this book reveals another dimension of LASIK in the contemporary ophthalmologist’s armamentarium, showing the width and the diversity of LASIK applications in a vast number of ophthalmology subspecialties. The large collection of esteemed co-authors of the different topics by virtue of their knowledge and expertise not only contribute to the clarification of ambiguous issues about this technique but also stimulate the reader to search in the literature for additional contents. It is thoroughly researched and easy to read. The outline form of the book is well organized and provides the reader with state-of-the-art information regarding LASIK technique.

Prof. Vajpayee and his co-authors have succeeded in writing a timely and concise book on many interesting entities of LASIK technique. I think that this book will provide an organized reference to aid the residents and practicing ophthalmologists who want to start their journey in refractive surgery.

I congratulate the authors for their successful work.

Ioannis G Pallikaris MD PhD Vardinoyiannion Eye Institute of Crete University of Crete, School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology Heraklion, Greece

Preface

The subject of developing ideal cures for naturally occurring defects in the human body has always fascinated medical scientists. Refractive errors are such a naturally occurring defects and have required the use of external aids like spectacles or contact lenses. These devices have their own inherent flaws as regard to cosmesis and comfort. Refractive surgery has emerged as a new subspecialty in ophthalmology designed to develop an ideal surgical technique to help people reduce their dependency on their external visual aids.

Radial Keratotomy was the first refractive surgery that was tried on a large scale. Ten years later, it was realized that the technique was not as safe and effective as it initially appeared to be. Excimer Laser Photorefractive Keratectomy was the next popular technique and subsequently gave way to LASIK due to its obvious advantages of minimal pain, fast visual rehabilitation and absence of corneal haze. Presently LASIK remains the most widely practiced surgical technique of refractive surgery. Each day a newer modification is being developed and the LASEK is the latest addition in the armamentarium of refractive surgeons using excimer laser. There are various excellent textbooks published in the field of LASIK surgery and we were a little perplexed when approached by our publisher as to whether there is a need of one more book on this subject. However, after initial hesitation we were convinced that there is a need for a simple source document that can provide readers useful practical information regarding the various aspects of LASIK surgery. Experienced LASIK surgeons from different parts of world have contributed their thoughts to this book and have shared their experience about the various aspects of this state-of-the-art surgical technique. We are grateful to all the contributing authors for the time and effort they put in and worked hard to finish their chapters before the Christmas.

The book has been organized in a simple and effective style of stepwise approach to LASIK surgery and includes information about the latest microkeratomes and excimer laser machines. There are chapters on specific surgical techniques like LASEK, LASIK for post-penetrating keratoplasty, ametropias and wavefront guided LASIK.

Overall our book provides comprehensive and easy to read information to refractive surgeons and general ophthalmologists. Happy reading!

Rasik B Vajpayee

Namrata Sharma Samir A Melki Laurence Sullivan