A Better Brand Of LASIK

JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Robert underwent LASIK 11 years ago and still sees great. A brand ambassador for Porsche Tampa, Robert has always had a keen interest in cars.

Robert Kearney is a baseball fan. He is also a former player. In high school, Robert played third base and pitched. While in college, he focused on pitching until he was permanently sidelined by an injury to his throwing shoulder.

Now, Robert stays close to the game by coaching his 6-year-old son’s team.

“I played baseball my first three years in college,” Robert expounds. “First, I played for Florida College (in Temple Terrace), then I transferred to the University of Omaha in Nebraska, which has a much different climate than Florida.

“After being in Nebraska for a year, I tore my labrum (the cartilage that lines the shoulder joint and holds it in place), so I returned to Tampa to finish my last year of college at the University of South Florida. I earned a marketing degree.”

While at USF, Robert began searching for a job and was introduced to the principals at a local auto dealership, which hired him for an entry-level position. That enabled him to learn the car business from the ground up. Over the years, there were many opportunities to advance his career.

“Currently, I’m a brand ambassador for Porsche Tampa,” he states. “A brand ambassador is the next level up from a sales representative. We have to really understand our clients and help everyone who walks through the door appreciate the brand.

“Previously, I was with Audi, and before that I was with a couple of other brands. But now I hit the pinnacle – I’m with the best car brand in the industry. I’ve been in the luxury car business for almost 17 years and with Porsche Tampa for close to nine years.”

Robert has always had a keen interest in cars. The highly motivated 38-year-old also loves being outdoors, but he typically wears sunglasses during the day to protect his eyes. Robert is quite focused on his eyes, which have long been problematic.

“I’m farsighted and was prescribed glasses when I was 13,” he says. “But I only wore them when I absolutely had to because I didn’t like wearing glasses. During my junior year of high school, I started wearing contact lenses.

“Over time, though, I began having issues with the contacts. They irritated my eyes, causing them to be really dry and very red. I put solutions in my eyes to take away the dryness and redness, but they didn’t help much. Eventually, I decided to get LASIK surgery because I didn’t want to deal with contacts anymore.”

LASIK, or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, is a common laser procedure that reshapes the cornea, the front window of the eye, to account for refractive focusing errors.

The surgery can correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, which is an imperfect curvature of the cornea that causes blurred vision. LASIK results in crisp, clear vision without glasses or contacts.

“I told my doctor I was interested in LASIK,” Robert remembers. “He said he didn’t perform LASIK, but he would put me in contact with the best LASIK guy out there. That is Dr. Desai.”

Experience and Techniques

Neel R. Desai, MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist at The Eye Institute of West Florida. Dr. Desai completed fellowship training in corneal, cataract and refractive surgery at the renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore.

“During my fellowship, I learned how to perform LASIK at a very high, precise level, so I bring to bear the most current and advanced technologies for laser vision correction,” Dr. Desai describes. “I also underwent LASIK on my own eyes using those same technologies with great success. Because of that, the subject hits very close to home for me.”

Dr. Desai’s expertise and the techniques he uses set apart The Eye Institute of West Florida from other practices that offer LASIK.

“There are about 450 to 500 LASIK surgeons in this country,” the doctor notes. “The vast majority of them are not fellowship-trained and have taken a weekend certification course on LASIK. They have not spent a year or two of postgraduate training learning how to perform LASIK at the highest level as I have. I now train other surgeons to perform the procedure and actually proctor those weekend courses.”

Dr. Desai says his advanced training is especially valuable when it comes to patient selection and treatment planning.

“It’s critical to select patients who are highly likely to have a wonderful outcome and recommend alternatives for patients who aren’t,” Dr. Desai contends. “We match the right tools to the right patients in the right situation to avoid complications and side effects.”

One possible side effect is dry eye syndrome. Left untreated, dry eye can interfere with the healing process and increase the need for an enhancement procedure, such as another LASIK surgery.

“The national average for requiring an enhancement procedure is 10 to 12 percent,” the doctor discloses. “My rate is less than 1 percent. We’re more successful because we identify and treat preexisting conditions such as dry eye before LASIK surgery.

“And we stand by our work. The institute offers a rather unique lifetime enhancement guarantee. It’s uncommon, but if one of our patients does require a touch-up procedure, we perform it at no additional charge over the patient’s lifetime.”

Safety and Precision

During LASIK, the surgeon creates a small, hinged flap on the surface of the cornea through which tissue is accessed and reshaped.

A notable difference between The Eye Institute of West Florida and other LASIK centers is the method used to create the flap. Dr. Desai likens the process to reshaping the pages of a book once the cover is opened.

“Many LASIK centers in this country still use a microkeratome blade to create the flap,” he informs. A microkeratome blade is a small, oscillating razor that slides across the corneal to slice the flap.

“I use an all-laser system that creates the flap with far greater safety and precision than can be accomplished with a blade. It’s safer not only during surgery, but also for the long run. A flap made with a laser is stronger and more resistant to injury, whereas flaps made with a microkeratome blade are more prone to slippage, wrinkling or injury.”
-Neel R. Desai, MD

Another advancement in LASIK available at the institute is the ability to customize the surgery for better visual outcomes. By using a laser, the doctor and his colleagues can create very specific patterns for corneal reshaping that correspond to the patient’s unique prescription.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all treatment, Dr. Desai asserts. And it wasn’t for Robert.

“Mr. Kearney wanted to get out of glasses and contact lenses,” the doctor recalls. “We were able to successfully perform LASIK on him. He drove himself to our office the next morning, and his vision was 20/20 or better without glasses.”

“Fantastic” Vision

Dr. Desai performed Robert’s procedure 11 years ago, and Robert reports that his eyesight is still crystal clear.

“My vision is fantastic,” Robert enthuses. “I haven’t had any issues inside or outside. It doesn’t matter if the weather changes, there are no issues. And the dry eye and redness are totally gone. I’m extremely happy with the results, and I’m glad I had the surgery. It was very easy, and I felt comfortable throughout the entire process.

“What’s more, I don’t worry about my eyes now. When you get injured playing sports, you’re always thinking about your injury. Since I had LASIK, I don’t think about my eyes at all. It never crosses my mind to say, I hope I have a good eye day.”

Robert still remembers the phone call he received from The Eye Institute of West Florida hours after his surgery. It meant a lot to him.

“I picked up the phone, and on the other end was Dr. Desai,” Robert recalls. “It wasn’t his assistant or somebody from the office checking on me. It was him. That’s always stuck with me. It showed he really cared.

“Dr. Desai is amazing. He’s very knowledgeable, and he walked me through the entire process so I understood everything. From start to finish, my surgery experience was great, and I’m really glad I had it done by Dr. Desai.”

But that’s not the end of the story. About nine years after the LASIK procedure, Robert and the ophthalmologist crossed paths again.

“A Dr. Desai called my dealership looking into a car, and it was the same Dr. Desai who did my surgery,” Robert recalls. “It was time for me to return the favor because he stepped up his game with my surgery. I showed him that, just like him, I am a high performer as well by giving him the best customer service.”