04 Dec 2008

Cutting edge eye op OK’d

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first LASIK device designed to treat one eye to see far-away objects and the other eye to see things that are close up.

The CustomVue Monovision device is designed to correct all nearsightedness in the dominant eye and only part of the nearsightedness in the other eye, the agency said. This allows use of the fully corrected eye for distance, and the partially corrected eye for objects that are close.

People considering the surgery should wear specially designed contact lenses to monitor how they respond to having one eye's vision under-corrected, the FDA said.

LASIK vision correction involves cutting a flap in the outer layers of the cornea, removing a small amount of tissue beneath it with a laser, then replacing the flap. Side effects could include glare from bright lights, a halo around sources of light, sensitivity to light, ghost images, and double vision, the agency said.

As a condition of approval, the maker of the CustomVue product, California-based AMO/VISX Inc., will be required to follow up on 500 patients for six months after surgery to gauge vision performance and quality-of-life issues, the FDA said. – (HealthDayNews)