More people opting for advanced lasik surgery

Pune: More people have been coming forward for undergoing vision correction surgery ever since the advancement of lasik eye surgery in the last few years.
Many professionals, fitness enthusiasts and doctors as well have been opting for vision correction surgery to do away with their dependency on glasses and contact lenses.
A Bengaluru-based eye surgeon Sri Ganesh said that in the early years of lasik, around 0.5% patients in India had undergone refractive surgery.Post advancements in lasik surgery in the last few years, around 5% of the patients in India with refractive errors have been undergoing laser vision correction,he added.
“With the increase in comfort, safety and accuracy the numbers should increase in the coming year,” said Sri Ganesh, director of Nethradhama Superspeciality hospital.
The recent advances in surgery include — bladeless lasik, which is a painless minimally invasive procedure that enables patients to resume all their normal activities including sports within a week; presbyond lasik which corrects presbyopia in older patients; wavefront lasik which corrects irregularities in vision and contoura lasik that re-shapes the cornea into a more uniformed and smooth surface. Eye surgeons can now correct almost all types of vision problems and have made the procedure much safer and predictable.
Recently, a prominent eye surgeon and an avid marathoner in Pune underwent the bladeless procedure to set right the vision problem he had been living with since childhood, so that he could give his best shot at the Ironman triathlon next year.
“I had hypermetropia or hyperopia (long-sightedness), which meant I needed plus power glasses. I needed an additional plus number for near vision after I turned 40,” said eye surgeon Aditya Kelkar, director of the National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO), which is among the first eye hospitals in India that have been offering lasik surgery since 1994.
Hyperopia is an eye condition where distant objects are seen clearly but near objects appear blurred. This is due to incoming light being focused behind, instead of on the retina wall due to insufficient accommodation by the lens.
Asked why he took so long to undergo the lasik surgery, Kelkar said that the lasik technology ‘Contoura’ has been made available in India only for the last 4-5 years.
“I opted for the lasik surgery to do away with dependency on glasses. I am also a fitness enthusiast and I find difficulty running and swimming with glasses. I feel more confident now,” said Kelkar, who got the surgery done in April.
Bengaluru-based Sri Ganesh is also among the eye surgeons, who have opted for lasik eye surgery. . He had perfect vision until he turned 45 years. Then he started becoming totally dependent on reading glasses. The issue is known as presbyopia.
“I was dependent on glasses for any near activity and for reading,” Sri Ganesh said. He decided to undergo a laser vision correction ‘Presbyond’, which corrects both distance and near vision in people over 40 years. “It has been six years since my surgery and I am very happy. I am able to do all my activities and hobbies without the impediment of wearing glasses. My vision could not have been more perfect. I am more confident,” he said.