Lasik in 2000, Ectasia in 2007, now 20/20 with GVR Scleral Lens

This is a photo of a patient and his wife who visited us from Santiago, Chile. In 2000 this patient underwent LASIK surgery. For 5 years following his surgery he saw clearly. In 2005 this patient started losing his vision in a progressive manner over the following years. In 2007 he was diagnosed with post-LASIK corneal ectasia. Corneal ectasia is a protrusion and thinning of the front surface of the eye (the cornea). This results in a very irregular, distorted cornea and distorted vision which cannot be corrected with eyeglasses or conventional contact lenses. This patient visited a number of doctors in his country seeking help with his vision. Several years ago he was fit with “piggy back” lenses. This is a combination of soft lenses placed on the eyes first followed by gas permeable lenses worn over the soft lenses. For several years this patient wore this lens combination which was not only painful but in addition the lenses would often pop out of his eyes. When we first saw this patient about 2 weeks ago, he could barely open his eyes. Both of his corneas had significant scarring from his small gas permeable lenses. Without his lenses this patient’s visual acuity was less than 20/800 in each eye. With the lenses he first wore into our office his visual acuity was 20/80. We fit this patient with GVR Scleral lenses which now provide him with 20/20 vision in his right eye and 20/30 vision in his left eye. The reduced visual acuity in this patient’s left eye was due to the corneal scarring in this eye. This patient returned home today. He is now able to wear his new lenses comfortably with all day lens wear. In the lower left photo you can see the corneal scarring created by his previous lenses. The lower right photo shows the protrusion (ectasia) that was caused by his LASIK surgery. I feel that this patient will be able to wear his new scleral lenses comfortably and with clear vision for many years to come.