SOAL JAWAB LASIK

From: Maria Rasid

Assalamualaikum.

Saya berminat dgn package premium 'bladeless lasik' Faham dengan kesibukan Prof sukacita jikalau pihak Prof atau wakil dapat memberi saya info yang harus saya tahu sebelum saya membuat temu janji.

Pertanyaan saya:

1. Kenyataan 1st hosp in south East Asia perform the procdure.

Apakah ia berbeza dgn kebanyakan lasik yg dilakukan oleh pakar-pakar lain?

2. Apakah perbezaannya dan kebaikannya?

3. Kenapa package tidak termasuk post-op follow-up selepas setahun atau sekurang-kurang nya 6 bulan kemudian seperti kebanyakan package pakar yg lain?

4. Berapa kali pre-op appointment Dr. yg perlu saya jalani?

5. Selepas op. bila saya boleh bertugas seperti biasa (civil engeneer)?

Terima Kasih

Dear Maria,
Thank you for your questions.

The advantage of LASIK and comparing the difference with other centres Prince Court Medical centre is using the VISUMAX bladeless LASIK. (It is the first in South East Asia)

We are using laser to create the flap compared to most centres using blade in Malaysia.

This Visumax system is definitely superior to blade system, it is more like comparing a car with air bags and a car without air bag. Both can drive but safety wise, they are different. With blade technique, a suction ring is applied to the eye (this involve suction on the whole eye, the cornea is flattened, applying intensive suction to the whole the eye so that, the blade can run across the eye to create the flap at 160 micron thick.) In the Visumax system, a special handmade contact lens like cup is applied to the eye, and suction is only applied to on the cornea, and it is the lowest suction pressure compared to  other blade technique.

If you were to compare FemtomSecond Laser from other centre, they are using laser to create the flap as well, but they do the same thing, that is apply a ring on the whole eye, suck up the eye, applanate (flatten) the cornea, and run the laser across. Again, compared to the Visumax system, a hand made cup following the curvature of eye and suction is just on the cornea itself. Therefore it creates low suction pressure to the eye. Major advantage of low suction pressure, which mean our LASIK patients do not experience a visual "black-out" which is not only frightening, but in rare instances the extremely high pressures in corneal applanation with blade and other femtomsecond laser may lead to retinal vascular occlusion or macular (retinal) hemorrhage.

With the low suction pressure or no "black out", the visumax system enable the patient to continue focusing on the green focusing light through out the flap creation which helps maintain good centration during the procedure, less patient discomfort, minimal subconjuctival hemorrhage from the low suction.

Post op Procedure:

Follow up procedure will be on the first day, first week, first month, three months and six months post lasik. 
The package involves:

1. Eye Screening

a.  Vision testing
b.  Autorefractor- to measure the refractive error of the eye
c. Corneal thickness measurement,
d. Screening for corneal irregularity

2. Comprehensive Eye Assessment

a.  Comprehensive refraction
b. Dominant Eye Determination
c. Ability to focus near test (Amplitude of Accommodation)
d. Optical Wavefront analysis of the Eye ( customisation of each eye)
e.  Eye Pressure measurement
f.  Tear evaluation
g. Pupil size measurement (in dark and bright light)
h. Cornea topography (cornea fingerprint)
i. Photograph of the retina
j. Dilation
k. Iris Diameter measurement
l.  Axial length measurement
m. Anterior Chamber Assessment
n. Comprehensive retinal examination by Ophthalmologist
o.  Comprehensive Corneal and eye health assessment by Ophthalmologist

3. First day and first week follow up, is covered in the procedure

To summarise, Why VISUMAX is Expensive

1. Whole system LASIK is integrated, starting from eye testing to delivering laser energy the eye. Diagnostic equipments are integrated with the LASIK machine
2. Flap is created totally using LASER, no blade involved.
3. Low pressure to the eye,
4. Painless
5. Fast recovery, patient see the difference immediately after LASIK (Some patient has reported driving 4 hours after LASIK)
6. Surgical procedure is integrated, from creating flap to laser ablation. In other centres, patient might need to walk over to another machine for excimer laser blindfolded.
7. Very Comprehensive eye examination using the latest retinal imaging and quantification of optic nerve head analysis.
8. High tech diagnostic equipment and imaging
9. Patient safe hospital, JCI accredited (all patients are free of infection)
10. Experienced ophthalmologist (one top one care) and supporting staff
11. Our hospital policy is patient safety first, therefore, we make sure all the consumable are used once only (we do not recycle consumable).

I hope I have answered your questions. Yes you can continue being an engineer as we have done on two engineers who start work after two days of lasik and a surgeon who operated for 14 hours continuously on a cancer pateint two days after he had lasik procedure and his power of glasses was _7.5 Dioptre BE . 

Prof Dr Muhaya.