There’s a dark side to the common Lasik (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) eye surgery.
Detroit TV meteorologist Jessica Starr died by suicide last week, and although there were likely many factors behind her death, some are putting the blame on her Lasik eye surgery, which resulted in some complications for the mother of two.
Starr told her fans on Facebook that the recovery from the vision-improving surgery, which involves using an ultraviolet laser to alter the shape of the eye’s cornea, was unexpectedly difficult. The surgery comes with potential side effects like blurry vision and dry eyes.
“In my experience over two decades doing this surgery, it’s very rare that patients have pain postoperatively unless there is a complication,” says Dr. Douglas Lazzaro, ophthalmologist at NYU Langone Health.
He puts the complication rate at “less than 1 percent — and most of the time, it’s just related to someone who has severely dry eyes.”
In a 2016 review of studies published between 2008 and 2015 measuring patient satisfaction, only 1.2 percent of those with the surgery weren’t happy with the outcome.
Although no one knows what exactly happened to Starr following the surgery or if it even played a role in her suicide at all, critics of Lasik say the chronic pain it can lead to can be unbearable, and that patients need to be much more aware of the side effects than they currently are.
“Pain is way more common than people realize,” says Paula Cofer, a Lasik patient turned anti-Lasik advocate who runs an online support group for patients of the surgery, Lasik Complications. “When you throw in the fact that your vision is blurry in a way no one understands, you can’t function anymore.”
Here are the potential downsides to the surgery:
Dry eyes
This symptom is the most common side effect, Lazzaro says. According to a clinical trial conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, about a quarter of people who got Lasik had dry eyes three months after surgery.
“It’s not uncommon for even six to 12 months [after surgery] to have some dryness,” Lazzaro says, adding that it’s more common for older patients, because our ability to produce tears diminishes with age anyway. He recommends patients use artificial tears without preservatives after the surgery whether or not they experience itchiness.
But Cofer says that dryness can be incredibly severe, and can even lead to chronic pain. It can be difficult to distinguish between dry eyes and nerve damage to the cornea, which studies show is rare but possible. “For me it was a constant burning, sometimes stabbing pain,” Cofer says.
Vision issues
Lasik isn’t the silver bullet in perfect vision. Some patients still have to use reading glasses after the surgery, Lazzaro says. And about 45 percent of the patients in the FDA trial said they had a new visual aberration three months post-surgery. More than half the patients reported seeing glares, halos and double vision. There have been cases of patients losing their vision altogether.
And, it’s possible but still rare for a patient to end up with something called corneal ectasia, in which the surgery can cause the cornea to become less stable, resulting in distorted vision.
“This is one of the biggest issues that people need to know about because it can cause permanent weakness [in vision] in the months, years and decades after surgery,” Cofer says.
Harder to detect glaucoma
It can be difficult to spot glaucoma, or damage to the optic nerve resulting in poor vision, after a patient has Lasik, Lazzaro says. Screening for glaucoma often involves observing pressure changes in the eye, and Lasik surgery alters the pressure in the eye.
Although an eye pressure test isn’t the only way to detect glaucoma, it is the most accurate, says Lazzaro, adding that doctors should always be screening in alternative ways during exams.
“If a person does develop glaucoma, they’re at risk of losing vision because it wasn’t caught,” Cofer says.