Objective analysis

 Jason P Brinton MD

Ophthalmologists who perform refractive surgery are nearly four times more likely to undergo laser vision correction than the general population, according to a study presented at the XXXIII Congress of the ESCRS in Barcelona, Spain.

“Our study indicates that almost 62 per cent of refractive surgeons who are candidates for laser vision correction have had a procedure, and more than 90 per cent recommend laser vision correction to their immediate family members,” said Jason P Brinton MD, an ophthalmologist in private practice in St Louis, Missouri, USA. (Kezirian GM, Parkhurst GD, Brinton JP, Norden RA. Prevalence of laser vision correction in ophthalmologists who perform refractive surgery. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2015 Sep;41(9):1826-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrs.2015.10.027)

Discussing the rationale behind such a study, Dr Brinton said it was prompted by a desire to bring some objective analysis to an issue that interests a lot of patients.

“We are often asked by patients if, as ophthalmologists, we have had laser vision correction on our own eyes. Among some patients there is a suspicion that doctors are more likely to wear glasses or contact lenses and do not have laser vision correction themselves. One ophthalmologist featured on a national television programme last year even stated that LASIK was one procedure that ophthalmologists do not want to have,” he said.

With this in mind, Dr Brinton and co-workers set out to determine the prevalence of laser corneal refractive surgery among ophthalmologists who perform these procedures, and assess the willingness of these physicians to recommend laser vision correction to immediate family members.

Their prospective randomised questionnaire of 22 questions was sent by email to 250 ophthalmologists, randomly selected from a database of 2,441 ophthalmologists known to have performed laser vision correction at some point in the past decade.

SURVEY RESULTS

Responses were received from 248 (99.2 per cent) of the 250 queried ophthalmologists, of whom 232 (92.8 per cent) met the protocol criteria of currently working as refractive surgeons.

Interestingly, the prevalence of pre-existing refractive errors was significantly higher among ophthalmologists performing refractive surgery than in the general population, said Dr Brinton.

Of the 232 ophthalmologists eligible for the study, 161 (69.4 per cent) reported that they had refractive errors potentially amenable to treatment with laser vision correction, not including presbyopia. Of the 161 ophthalmologists with treatable refractive errors, 54 (33.5 per cent) reported they were not candidates for laser vision correction for a variety of reasons, and 107 (66.5 per cent) reported they were candidates for laser
vision correction.

Of the laser vision correction candidates, 62.6 per cent reported that they had a laser vision correction procedure in their own eyes. Of the overall 232 subjects, more than 90 per cent recommend laser vision correction for adult members of their immediate family.

Dr Brinton noted that the high rates of participation in the survey indicate that surgeons are willing to disclose
their personal experiences with
refractive surgery.

“Future studies should be conducted to evaluate acceptance of refractive procedures across ophthalmologists generally, and to compare these rates against age- and income-matched controls from the general population,” he said.

Jason P Brinton: jpbrinton@gmail.com