RK 30 years ago, then Lasik, Incisions STILL open

This is a photo of the front surface of an eye that underwent Radial Keratotomy surgery 30 years ago followed by LASIK surgery years later. A special dye was used to highlight the defects (cuts) in this cornea. The straight lines that you see at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 O’Clock are the open RK incisions. The bright green circular line going around the periphery of the cornea is the outline of the LASIK flap. Needless to say, the vision that this patient has with this eye is very poor. In addition the eye is very dry and presents this patient with significant comfort issues. This eye was recently fit with a scleral lens which has greatly improved the vision and comfort in this eye for our patient. The cuts that you see in this eye are permanent. There is no way to undo the damage to the eye created by these needless elective surgeries. The only thing that we can do is to manage the patient’s comfort and vision as best we can with specialty lenses. Corneal transplant surgery is really not a viable option.