Lasik at altitude?

[Coldfinger]

Anybody have any experience with that above say 19 thou? I was also wondering if there's any difference between a few months after surgery and after a year.

[Alpinfox]

I've been to 20K with no problems. I think that was about 1 year out from my surgery.

 

 

LINK

 

[Bug]

Your eyes will pop.

 

 

Actually, I doubt that you have anything to worry about. There were definate problems with people who had Radial Karetotomy (RK)which was the predecessor to Lasic but they are very different procedures. With RK, small pieces of the cornea were sliced out so that the eye would kind of collapse into a better shape. It was these areas that were sliced out that caused problems at altitude due to the inconsistencies in the cornea.

With Lasic, a flap of the cornea is opened up, folded back, and the layer underneath is kind of sanded down with the laser. Then the flap is layed back down and the effect on the eye is uniform.

There may still be problems but I have not heard of any. My brother did lasic procedures for awhile. He said the only problem he has seen personally is that cataracts seem to show up earlier. But his experience is anecdotal not a scientific study.

I had PRK, a form of lasic about three years ago. I have not been above 14,410 since then but I have been in -50 which was also known to cause problems for people who had RK for the same reasons I mentioned above. I just see better. There have been no negative side effects.

A few months vs a year for true lasic (not PRK) should not make a difference. Your epiphilium was probably totally healed in less than a week.

Ah, here you go;

"Air Force surgeons said they were concerned with how this LASIK flap would hold up with pilots and crewmembers in high-altitude, low-oxygen environments, especially in an emergency evacuation. Studies now show that there is little or no effect on LASIK treated eyes when put through the windblast of an aircraft ejection or when exposed to high altitude."

http://cw11.empowereddoctor.com/story_1196.html

 

 

[Bug]

The pink fox beat me to it.

To add to the (excellent)article he posted, I also get blurred vision at Ropeup. I beleive it to be related to the close proximity to climbers' toxic farts.

[rbw1966]

No problems with lasik at 20K. I did have problems before lasik with contacts at altitude.

[Reid]

what kind of trouble did the contacts give you?

[rbw1966]

First off, from what I understand what happened to me is pretty uncommon. I was up at 19K feet in Bolivia and slept with my contacts in (they were gas permeable but apparently not THAT permeable). I awoke with blurry vision which, as you can well imagine, was a bit alarming at that altitude since we were concerned it might be cerebral edema. I had no other symptoms. I took out the contacts and put on glasses but my vision continued to worsen so we bailed down to base camp at around 15K. Within a short time my vision returned to normal. Serendipitously, an opthalmologist who was part of a group from Brazil checked out my eyes at base camp and said I had corneal edema that was caused by the contacts. As I understand it, the contacts restricted the flow of oxygen to my eyes which caused my corneas to swell. He told me not to wear contacts at altitude again.

 

I had Lasik done as soon as I got back to the US.

[iluka]

There's a nice review article on going to altitude with preexisiting ocular conditions that includes a discussion of Lasik and RPK procedures:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=14672545&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

 

 

[Coldfinger]

"what kind of trouble did the contacts give you?"

 

Wyoming dust and wind and the trouble associated with long trips in the mountains, smoky bars and chronic bouldering.

Edited October 13, 2007 by Coldfinger