CASA take on LASIK eye surgery...
The Designated Aviation Medical Examiner's Handbook , [approved Dec,2003].....is exactly that...11years out of date...is easily found on the web , and describes PRK as ' new' and LASIK does not get a mention.
Apparently a new one is being drafted but twelve months on it has not appeared.
If I was 25-30years of age and moderately short-sighted I would have LASIK , as at that age I was also playing cricket ,tennis, golf ,rugby league , hockey , basketball and table tennis.....and with luck I would not need glasses until I passed 40+ yrs , and needed them for reading.
It is less suited to longsighted patients as they are more likely to drift off the zero [i.e.plano] correction mark and end up needing glasses again soon.....short sighted patients sometimes have this problem too.
Unfortunately all laser refractive surgery comes with a degree of risk which may be small but may finish a flying career.
Certainly clinics which advertise on low/cut price are to be avoided....nearly always means old machines!
Possible problems are:
1. 'Dry eye' symptoms which may last for 12months or more and can be aggravated by pressurised cabins....and can make you more sensitive to glare.
2.Haze in the cornea [fairly rare these days with better equipment/techniques]...but CASA almost always requests a contrast sensitivity test with grey filters for pilots who have had 'laser surgery'...so significant haze could end your career if you can't meet the Class1 requirement of no worse than 6/9 in the worst eye and 6/6 with both [corrected or uncorrected]....as well as n.5 from 30-50cm at near.
My experience is that slight haze in a young cornea gets worse as you get older , so your career could end before you want it to...
3. Variable vision....for example if you cannot read your phone for 10 minutes in the morning, you probably no longer meet the Class1 standard, but a pair of glasses properly prescribed may solve this problem.
If you come out of the crew rest area on a long haul flight and can't read for ten minutes are you safe to occupy a seat on the flight deck?
4. Refractive error returns due to changes inside the eye....remember lasering only changes the shape of the front surface [cornea].....or very rarely the front surface can go way out of shape if it is too thin...this can mean even spectacles can't help.
As a general rule 'laser surgeons' no longer advise this type of surgery for patients over 47years of age and offer lens replacement [really cataract surgery] instead ....however multifocal intra-ocular lenses would be unlikely to be approved and so-called 'monovision' [distance in one eye and near in the other]does not meet the
Class1 standard unless glasses are worn as well , to give the correct standard of distance vision.
I have always had perfect distance vision myself and only needed near correction from 48 years of age... but I now wear my lightweight progressive multifocal rimless Transition tinted spectacles from sun up till bedtime quite happily... and every day I get to see that my vision is infinitely better than the vain ' old boilers ' that the Laser surgeon next door has extracted dollars from.
To be fair I also see quite a large number of perfectly happy patients who have been lasered and have fortunately maintained good vision...but the percentage of problem/ unhappy/no longer without spectacles patients , is higher than was expected 10 years ago.
I also get to make quite a few dollars myself prescribing spectacles for 'lasered ' patients who can no longer see well enough without glasses!
For career pilots I think if your visual problem is not too great and you are probably going to be wearing sunglasses even after you have Laser surgery...save your dollars, or read the small print on the surgery release form...the bit that says "I am aware this procedure could cause blindness"....It will also save you money on extra Aviation eye medicals but my colleagues and I will get by!
This is just my take on 12+ years referring, co-managing and post-op following laser [both LASIK and PRK which is a similar treatment] patients.....also 42 years as an optometrist, 33years as a pilot, 25years as a CPL.
Flopt
CASA Credentialed Optometrist/Aviation Eye Examiner.
PS I didn't put the @s in but I can't edit them out either!!!