I am having problems with glare, halos, starbursts. Day and night. So they said I had 8mm pupils and that there treatment zone would max out at 8mm
They are using visex S4. I looked this up it seems treatment zones could be highe for the device. I'm trying figure out my options at this point. Should I continue to wait? My eyes don't react to light like they should my doctor said they don't get very smaller and I need to let my eyes adapt. Is he blowing smoke or what? I'm very concerned that the treatment zone wasn't increased if that was the capability
Pre op
R-3.00 diaopters
L-2.75 diopters
Post 1 month im seeing 20/20 with glare, halos, starbursts
Hello fauzool, and sorry to hear about your situation. I had LASIK in one eye and PRK in the other four years ago. One month isn't a long time... I had massive and horrifying glare/halos/starbursts post-op, which improved significantly over three weeks, and slightly over four years, but not completely. Everyone is different.
I found several studies which say that, as long as the optical zone is ~6.0 mm or more, larger pupils did not have more night vision problems [u]after[/u] 3 to 6 months post-op. (Note that optical zone is smaller than treatment zone, which includes the transition or 'blend' zone.)
Which makes one wonder what [i]does[/i] cause night vision problems. A decentered ablation (not properly lined up) could do it. Dry eye, maybe.
I also found one small study to suggest that PRK tends to increase pupil size but that it improves with time. The average increase was 0.7 mm at 3 months and 0.2 mm at 21 months. For what it's worth, my PRK eye has a slightly larger pupil than my LASIK eye, but I don't have my records in front of me so can't say what it was before surgery.
Yes - according to the FDA approval letters, the Visx Star S4 and Star S4 IR have an 8 mm treatment zone and 6 mm optical zone when used for nearsightedness, such as in your case. I don't know if they could be pushed beyond those sizes. For what it's worth, my own surgery used the Star S4 IR.
It seems deceptive for doctors to claim an 8 mm treatment zone when only 6 mm of that is optical zone. But again, supposedly, after 3 to 6 months, larger pupil sizes are not associated with more night vision problems as long as the optical zone is at least 6 mm.
One doctor claimed that the Star S4 doesn't always achieve 6 mm, but then, he works for a competing manufacturer (WaveLight).
For a long time, I got some starburst during the day with bright reflections, e.g. sunlight reflecting off metal. It pretty much went away eventually.
I'll PM you about the pupil size study.
