A
good candidate for
LASIK surgery should be capable of understanding the
risks of the procedure and that risk-free surgery does not exist. The patient must be willing and able to follow instructions
before,
during, and
after surgery. A patient who resists listening to a discussion of the risks may be a poor candidate for
surgery. If the patient is unable to understand the
surgeon due to a language barrier or disability, adequate preoperative counseling and intraoperative instruction will be more difficult to achieve. The patient must be available for postoperative follow-up. Beware of the patient with the challenging schedule who may not understand the care that is required
after surgery.
Managing patient expectations is one of the greatest challenges a LASIK surgeon faces. This begins with the preoperative consultation. The surgeon should avoid making grandiose statements regarding the surgical outcome or even promises about the quality of vision that will be achieved after surgery. However, patients should be told what level of visual acuity is reasonable to expect after surgery, with a subsequent enhancement procedure if needed. This can be expressed as an expected range of visual acuity that this particular patient would be expected to achieve. It is helpful to mention the surgeon's rate of enhancement for patients with similar refractive error. A preoperative patient who expects perfection after surgery is destined to be unhappy postoperatively. Do not confuse visual acuity with visual function. A patient with 20/20 Snellen acuity may be unhappy due to loss of near vision, ghosting, decreased contrast sensitivity, glare, or other problems that affect the quality of vision. Personal characteristics of the best LASIK patients include an easygoing nature, a positive outlook, a well-adjusted personality, currently using less than a full refractive error correction, and a willingness to wear glasses for reading or night driving.
Intense individuals, patients with a grim outlook, highly emotional or vitriolic patients, or highly critical patients may not be well suited to LASIK surgery.
The patient's psychosocial candidacy for the procedure should be assessed while the history is taken as well as during the examination. Input from a well-trained technician or office personnel is valuable information that should not be dismissed. However, it should not be considered a substitute for the surgeon's personal evaluation.
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Psychosocial Factors In LASIK Surgery for LASIK Candidates curtesy by : Robert S. Feder M.D & Anthony Cirino M.D @lasikreviews.
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