werner@aecom.UUCP (06/11/85)
I remember several months ago Radial Keratotomy (or to the net, RK) generating a lot of discussion, so the following press release caught my eye: [Ed. This is being typed in word for word.] DISCOURAGING LONG-TERM RADIAL KERATOTOMY RESULTS. A four-year postoperative evaluation of radial keratotomy has produced discouraging results, according to Perry S. Binder, MD, commenting on a study that appears in the June Archives of Opthamology. The results "clearly demonstrate that encouraging short-term follow-up of a newly developed surgical procedure does not necessarily predict longer-term safety and efficacy," he says. The study by Michael R. Dietz, MD of Kansas City, and Donald K. Sanders, MD/PhD of Chicago, showed that 42 of 81 eyes studied were plus of minus 1 diopter of emmetropia [that's normal vision]. "Such results can be considered unsatisfactory," Binder says. The results are modified by the fact that earlier procedures used steel rather than diamond blades. Thus the ultimate role of the procedure awaits long-term results of the studies performed with current surgical procedures. [Ed: And just in passing. I hope the netter(s) who had the operation are in the minority (?) in whom the procedure was permanently successful.] -- Craig Werner !philabs!aecom!werner "The world is just a straight man for you sometimes"