“I have been wearing contacts since I was thirteen years
old,” says Darcy Branch, “and without contacts or glasses, I was legally blind.
My contacts could correct me to twenty-twenty,” she clarifies, “but I’m
forty-five now, and the older I have gotten the less tolerant my eyes were to
them.”
In fact, says Darcy, her contact lenses became a major
inconvenience as the years went by.
“When I was younger, I could put a pair of contacts in and
wear them for a week without having to take them out,” she explains.
“Eventually, the contacts started aggravating me and wouldn’t last as long.”
Darcy is a regular patient at Manatee Sarasota Eye Clinic.
There, her ophthalmologist suggested she begin to take her contacts out each
night before bed.
“For the last two years, I have taken them out every
night,” she reports, “but that got to be a hassle as well.”
Ultimately, Darcy asked her physician about LASIK vision
correction.
“I’ve been wanting to have LASIK surgery for a while,” she
says. “When I asked my doctor about it, he referred me to Dr. Sambursky.”
Who is a candidate?
Robert P. Sambursky, MD, is a board-certified,
fellowship-trained ophthalmologist with Manatee Sarasota Eye Clinic. He
explains that there are specific criteria for who is an appropriate candidate
for a refractive procedure.
“We generally screen patients who are nearsighted and
farsighted,” he says, “and we offer them a wide variety of refractive
opportunities, including custom LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis)
and PRK (photorefractive keratectomy). The ideal candidates for these
procedures are patients who have no underlying systemic inflammatory medical
diseases, have normal shapes to their corneas, and have moderate levels of
refractive error.”
He explains
that one aspect of providing treatment that differentiates Manatee Sarasota Eye
Clinic is that patients can see the surgeon from their initial consultation
through their follow-up appointments.
“I personally perform all of my own preoperative
screening, along with the actual procedures, and I also do all my own follow-up
procedures,” assures Dr. Sambursky.
He also emphasizes that LASIK surgery is personalized to
meet the patient’s specific ocular requirements.
“We customize every surgery to meet each patient’s needs,”
he says. “With the newer technologies that are available, especially with
custom LASIK, there is a way to offer high-quality vision correction to a
broader range of people.
“For nearly a decade, WaveScan technology has been adapted
for use in laser vision correction. It pinpoints imperfections in the eye that
were not revealed using standard methods for fitting glasses and contact
lenses.
“The advent of the WaveScan and the custom laser
technology really opened the door for advanced laser vision correction.”
More on LASIK
Dr. Sambursky explains that LASIK is typically more
appropriate for patients within a particular age range, especially because the
eye may change as a patient ages and/or develops cataracts.
“In younger patients like Darcy, LASIK is a better
alternative than clear lens extraction because it is a surface-related
procedure, not an intraocular procedure. However, in older patients – who may
be starting to develop a cataract, though not necessarily to the level that the
cataract is a primary source of vision loss – a clear lens extraction becomes a
better alternative because the LASIK procedure is a more static response to the
vision at that moment.”
Finally, when it comes to vision correction, it’s
important to choose someone with extensive training, such as Dr. Sambursky, to
help decide which procedure to undergo, in addition to actually performing the
procedure.
“I’m a fellowship-trained cornea specialist, as opposed to
a general ophthalmologist,” he explains.
“LASIK does not preclude patients from having cataract
surgery in the future,” assures Dr. Sambursky. “If someone is sixty-three when
they get LASIK, then it’s more likely cataracts are going to develop over the
subsequent few years; if a patient is thirty and they have LASIK, the procedure
is likely going to remain stable for a longer period of time.”
“Perfect experience”
Darcy’s LASIK surgery was a typical one, with the results
being almost immediate.
“When I was sitting in the recovery room, I actually
looked up and could tell the time on the clock, which I would never have been
able to do before: I wouldn’t even have been able to see the clock!” she
marvels.
“It was wonderful, just wonderful.”
By the following day, Darcy was already enjoying sharp,
clear vision.
“They tested me the next morning and I was twenty-twenty,”
she reports. “I went in recently for my one-month follow-up, and I’m still twenty-twenty.
Everything is great.
“I wish I’d had this done twenty years ago.”
Darcy thanks Dr. Sambursky for providing an easy,
low-stress experience.
“He’s really cool,” she says. “He explains everything step
by step, tells you what to expect from beginning to end, and answers any
questions you might have. He’s great.
“It was just the perfect experience.”
FHCN – Michael J. Sahno