HOW THE EYE WORKS In order to appreciate the significance of this technology, it helps to have a basic understanding of how the eye works. The eye is a sphere shaped like a basketball. On the front of the sphere is the cornea which gathers light and reflects it into the receptors on the back of the eye. The most common vision problems are caused by imperfections in the focusing mechanism. In LASIK Laser Vision Correction, a laser reshapes the corneal surface tissue so that a sharper image is reflected onto the back of the eye. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LASIK EYE SURGERY LASIK eye surgery is a refractive surgery that uses the assistance of lasers. The lasers produce small incisions along the edge of cornea to flatten it and change the shape. "LASIK" is an anagram for "Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis." CHANGING THE SHAPE OF THE CORNEA Although LASIK eye surgery has only been in practice for 15 years, the technology for refractive surgery dates back much further. The concept for LASIK was first toyed with back in the mid-1800s. A physician named J. Ball developed and advertised a device that flattened the cornea by striking it with a mallet. Not surprisingly, the technology did not catch on. In the mid 1930s, Dr. Tutomu Satu developed a process to make incisions in the cornea to improve vision. He tried to perfect his "radial keratotomy" process on rabbits and then people. However, Satu's process resulted in damage to the cornea and the eyes of his patients became swollen and cloudy. RADIAL KERATOTOMY CHANGES EYESIGHT Thirty years later in Russia, Dr. Fyordorov adapted Dr. Satu's process with success. While Satu had attempted to cut through the back of the cornea, Fyordorov made incisions in the front and was able to adjust the process to correct both near-sightedness and far-sightedness. Radial Kerototomy or "RK" as it came to be called was popularized in the United States in the early 1980s. The RK procedure was first used successfully in 1985 in Germany. That particular procedure removed scars from the cornea, but did not repair vision, and was called "phototherapeutic keratectomy." Two years later, the first photorefractive keratectomy was performed and corrected the vision of a previously blind patient. LASIK REVOLUTIONIZES THE INDUSTRY Modern LASIK eye surgery is the latest technological leap for the corrective eye surgery field. Although RK worked, putting their eyes underneath the knife put off many patients. In 1983, Dr. Stephen Trokel developed a technique that used a laser to make the necessary incisions to change the shape of the cornea. While photorefractive keratectomy requires major alterations to the cornea, the LASIK procedure makes a minimum amount of incisions. The first trial of LASIK eye surgery was performed in 1991 and the popularity of the procedure has grown since then. TODAY AND TOMORROW LASIK eye surgery technology continues to improve every day. Here in Muskegon, Shoreline Vision is the leader around the Lakeshore in LASIK technology. And with 24-hour local care, patients can now expect faster healing times and clearer vision than could be achieved in previous years. Shoreline Vision Ophthalmologists performing LASIK are: John Oltean, D.O., Kenneth Otto, M.D, Lee Webster, M.D., and Timothy Barron, M.D.