Article Excerpt:
Want to Work in Space?
Squinters Can Now Apply

By RHONDA L. RUNDLE
WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 21, 2007; Page B1
View the full article online at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119033654042234685.html

Poor eyesight has long been the bugaboo of many aspiring astronauts, disqualifying more would-be space travelers than any other physical requirement since the beginning of the U.S. astronaut program in 1959.

As it kicked off recruitment of the 2009 candidate class this week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said for the first time it will consider applicants who have undergone two common types of vision-correction surgery: laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, known as Lasik; and photorefractive keratectomy, or PRK.

NASA's decision reflects more than a decade of research by military eye doctors. In May, the Air Force changed its policy to allow people applying for aviation jobs to have had Lasik surgery. That follows a similar move by the Navy last year. Private doctors say the Navy's refractive surgery research is unusually authoritative because of its independence from commercial companies and industry bias.

Further studies validated the safety and effectiveness of PRK, which the Navy approved for aviators in 2004. But the surgery can be painful and the minimum recovery time for pilots is about three months, a long layoff. By contrast, Lasik requires a much shorter recovery time and is virtually painless.

These advantages allowed Lasik in the late 1990s to quickly surpass PRK, which received Food and Drug Administration approval in 1995. But human tests showed that visual outcomes for Lasik patients weren't as good as those for PRK, says Steven Schallhorn, an ophthalmologist who oversaw the Navy's refractive surgery program before retiring earlier this year to go into private practice in San Diego. The former top gun pilot and instructor opposed Lasik in aviators until last year.

That's when he and other Navy researchers completed evaluation of Lasik combined with two new technologies: wavefront-guided software and the femtosecond laser.

The software is used to create a customized map of a patient's cornea before it's zapped by an excimer laser. The femtosecond laser, better known as IntraLase, offers more precision than handheld devices and is used in what is popularly called "all-laser Lasik." With these technologies, Lasik is as good as PRK, Dr. Schallhorn says now. The first Navy aviators had Lasik late last year.

That left NASA as the last frontier. No treated astronaut has ever flown in space. But that could change quickly now that the agency has rescinded its opposition.  

Note from Dr. Wilson: ClearSight Center has been using these advanced LASIK technologies (wavefront guided and femtosecond all-laser LASIK) since 2003. They allow our patients to have much safer procedure with much better results in a shorter amount of time. In fact, ClearSight Center has spent over 4 million dollars on these technologies including the state’s very first all-laser LASIK and the state’s only WaveLight wave-front guided LASIK. Out of 8 laser centers in Oklahoma City, only ClearSight Center and one other center have the All-Laser Intralase which was key to the research that changed NASA's stance on LASIK.