An average 95.4 percent of LASIK patients have reported satisfaction with their new vision. The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery announced this today in the first review of the world body of scientific literature. 

There are 16.3 million patients having had LASIK worldwide.  LASIK is considered the most successful eye corrective procedure and has more than a decade’s backing of clinical study and technological innovation.

“We find that there is solid evidence in the world’s scientific literature to affirm that there is an exceptionally high level of satisfaction in patients who have had LASIK surgery. While no surgery is perfect, certainly the 19 peer-reviewed studies of the 2,199 patients studied show extremely high satisfaction rates,” said Richard L. Lindstrom, M.D., president of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. “While patient satisfaction is extremely high, we recognize that there are patients who have unsatisfactory outcomes. As surgeons, we have taken the Hippocratic Oath. The well being of all of our patients is central to what we do and what we are. As such, and as the history of medicine has shown, we are committed to advancing our technology, patient selection, and surgical techniques so that we can continue to enhance the quality of our patient’s lives,” Lindstrom added.

The meta-analysis, led by Kerry Solomon, M.D. at the Storm Eye Institute of the Medical Center of South Carolina, examines nearly 3,000 peer-reviewed articles published over the past 10 years in clinical journals from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The research employed the Ovid and PubMed data bases using the term “LASIK” and similar search terms. A total of 2,915 articles were identified. “We wanted every article we could find, up to and including our last search, which was done on January 8, 2008,” Dr. Solomon said.