Informed Consent: Doc’s Eye Surgery ‘Success’ Can Be Anything But, to Patient

Doctors who perform Lasik surgery to improve patients' eyesight to the point where they no longer have to wear glasses say their work ordinarily turns out just fine.

But some patients considered a success by their physicians see the situation differently. A reporter who writes a lengthy New York Times article on the subject today is one of the unhappy ones.

"Looking back, I do not think my doctor and the other experts I consulted adequately represented the pitfalls," writes Abby Ellin. "It’s one thing to say that dry eye is 'annoying,' ” as Ellin says her physician did; "it’s another to explain how feeling as if your eyes are coated in Vaseline may make every waking moment a chore."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has established a task force to design a clinical trial to gather comprehensive data about patient results from Lasik surgery, and a pilot study has begun at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Md.