A new look on life: Laser eye surgery

I am not, however, an internationally famous rock star. Nor am I trying to disguise the tell-tale red eyes of a vicious hangover. No, I am a day into my new life without the need for prescription glasses or contact lenses having undergone laser eye surgery.

Just 24 hours earlier I am in Glasgow lying on a bed in a huge white surgery room, undeniably nervous about the procedure that lies before me.

As they tape my right eye open, a surgical assistant, slightly disconcertingly, holds my head in place. The relaxing tone of the surgeon cannot fully dampen my anxiety and despite my outward calm - part bravado, part fear of causing the laser to miss the target - I am definitely anxious and begin to wonder why I have not been given a sedative.

Later, I am told that this was to ensure full co-operation with the surgery, given that at various stages I must stare at a blinking red light.

The procedure lasts around 15 minutes and, although painless, is at times uncomfortable. The disruption to my eyesight during the surgery and the slightly otherworldly voice of the operating surgeon make me consider that this might be what it is like to be abducted by aliens.

The cutting edge LASEK procedure I have just undergone was first performed in 1996, but laser eye surgery has been part of optical treatment for 20 years. The first laser procedure was conducted in 1983 at Columbia University and a patent for a more advanced and patient friendly form of treatment granted in the USA in 1989, with the first operations tested on people with no sight in a particular eye.

Early procedures could be painful and require a course of strong painkillers, but the top of the range treatment performed by optical surgeons now boasts a quick recuperation time that can see patients return to work very quickly with no great disruption of their eyesight.

The LASEK treatment sees a small flap cut in the cornea of the eye, which is folded back before a laser is used to shave the curvature of the cornea thereby correcting the sight.

It sounds gruesome, and telling friends about the procedure afterwards induces noticeable winces. But, it is completely painless, and aside from stinging eyes and light sensitivity for 24 hours has little in the way of post-operative discomfort.

The after care routine, however, is vigorous. Eye drops must be applied regularly in the week following the procedure to ward off infection and I cannot run water over my head for two weeks.

I am forbidden from rubbing my eyes and must wear comic-looking eye guards at night to protect my sensitive eyeballs for a fortnight after the surgery. Sport is out for a month, and I am called back to the clinic the following day, and at regular intervals in the weeks following my treatment to ensure there are no complications.

It is not hard to see why the routine is so zealously enforced. Despite its excellent success rate, the surgery does have risks. The biggest post operative problem is infection, but patients can experience hazing - or starburst - around lights, dry eyes and the procedure is not 100 per cent guaranteed to give 20/20 vision.

It also has its limits. No effective surgery has yet been developed to cure long-sightedness brought on by age and it is likely I will need reading glasses in the years to come.

Mark Korolkiewicz, the clinical director of Ultralase says despite the obvious advances made over the past few years, refractive surgery on short-sightedness is approaching the upper end of what it can achieve, having become faster and less painful since the early days: "The top of the range treatment, as far as the accuracy of it, is just about as far as it can go in terms of distance vision," he says. "Where most of the development is going in these days is mostly about the reading vision."

He goes on: "We are very close to getting a good solution on that within certain defined and fairly narrow prescription ranges."

The clinical advancements in laser eye surgery have mirrored a steady increase in its popularity. Aside from high profile campaigns featuring celebrities such as triple jumper Jonathan Edwards, Mr Korolkiewicz notes that the greatest marketing tool his company has at its disposal is word of mouth, given the evident nervousness that people have about such an invasive procedure on their eyes.

"The biggest driver of patients coming into our clinics is knowing someone that we have treated," he says. "You have to combine that with marketing and being on the internet, and being on TV, but the biggest trigger point in a patient's decision to actually go ahead is knowing someone that has been through the treatment. Generally it is a conversation point - 'oh, you're not wearing your glasses' - and that triggers a conversation."

Oddly enough it is one of the more difficult aspects to measure because person A tells person B and they go onto the website and it gets credited to the website. But all the evidence is that is the single biggest driver in the decision making process.

He adds: "That is what really grew the surgery market in the late nineties - it took a while to get going and built up fairly slowly, but once it was sufficiently common that people generally did know someone that had been treated, that was largely responsible for a very sharp incline."

Back in the surgery, the procedure ends and, as I sit up to look at the world for the first time for more than 20 years without the need for corrective lenses, things are noticeably hazy. Despite this, there is already a definite improvement in my vision, minutes after the laser has finished its work, an improvement that has continued to this day.

• Chris received his treatment with Ultralase. Visit www.ultralase.com or call 0800 9888 237 to find out more