Most people define a successful result as the ability to function at distance without glasses. This corresponds to a vision of 20/40 or better. Of course, most people attain a vision of 20/20 or even better.

Dr. Mullie and Dr. Balazsi have presented their results at many international meetings of eye surgeons. The results of Standard LASIK are very good, and have surpassed the norms required by the FDA for approval.

The results of Standard LASIK for myopia, along with information on the quality of vision (night vision, halos etc.), have been surpassed by Wavefront Custom LASIK. Standard LASIK is still recommended for about 5% of cases of myopia.

The FDA requires uncorrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better in 85% of eyes treated for up to 7 diopters of myopia. This level was barely achieved with PRK by currently FDA approved excimer laser systems.

Our Standard LASIK data shows that for the same group of myopes, 87% see 20/20 or better, and almost 100% see 20/40 or better.


The chart below summarizes the data for visual acuity without any correction submitted to the FDA which resulted in the approval of the Bausch & Lomb 217 laser in the US. Virtually all of the eyes up to 7 Diopters achieved 20/40 or better (the limit for functional vision - able to drive a car).

It is however important to remember that all of these type of data which most centers will quote you are based on the visual acuity test, which measures the ability to pick out small high contrast letters on a white background. This test does not truly reflect our day-to-day visual tasks which are often performed at low levels of contrast. In other words, such data frequently do not and cannot assess the quality of vision and patient satisfaction. This was measured in a Laservue study by a patient satisfaction questionnaire, the results of which are reviewed below.

Laservue results for LASIK (FDA study of Bausch & Lomb 217 laser):

LASIK for myopia 20/20 or better

1 to 3 Diopters 89%

3 to 5 Diopters 84%

5 to 7 Diopters 82%

7 to 10 Diopters 80%

These numbers reflect the results after one treatment. Enhancement surgery is possible in most cases. This is done at about 6 months after surgery. Enhancements are required in less than 3-4% of myopes up to 6 Diopters, in 7-8% of myopes of 7-10 Diopters, and in at least 10% of myopes over 10 Diopters.


This data has been published in the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (scientific journal of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery). A detailed questionnaire was given prior to and 6 months after LASIK at Laservue. It showed that 98.5% of patients are satisfied with the result of their surgery. All would have the surgery again, except one patient who is perfectly happy with her result, but was so nervous prior to her surgery that she is not sure that she could go through with it once more!

The questionnaire also compared the rates of occurrence and severity of eye symptoms before and after surgery, including night vision and dry eye.

Specifically, there was no significant difference in the percentage of patients noticing difficulty with night driving. There was an increase in the percentage of patients noticing mild glare or halos at night, but this was not problematic.

This data is in contrast to the visual satisfaction reports from earlier studies with lasers which do not scan, which press reports have linked to a high incidence of severe night vision problems. This is because modern small-spot scanning lasers can treat a very wide zone, virtually all of the cornea, significantly reducing the 'edge effect' which can cause severe halos and glare when the pupil dilates in the dark.


Although the laser is able to correct much higher degrees of hyperopia, there appears to be a physiological limit of about 3.5 Diopters to the amount of steepening the corneal will tolerate. Overall, 89% of eyes see 20/40 or better.

This is a rare condition where there are two kinds of astigmatism (myopic and hyperopic). Doctors Mullie and Balazsi were the first to report on the results of LASIK for mixed astigmatism (Technolas User’s Meeting, San Francisco, October 1997). The news is that these difficult corrections can now be achieved.

The Excimer laser is an extremely accurate surgical tool which performs exactly as programmed. The reason that not all patients achieve 20/20 vision is that all eyes do not heal exactly the same: a small percentage of eyes will be slightly over-corrected or under-corrected, and continued use of low power eyeglasses may be required to achieve perfect distance vision (for example driving at night).

Treatment of astigmatism with the Zeiss Mel-80 laser is very accurate.If your prescription also has astigmatism, the chance of functioning without eyeglasses is not reduced.


The bottom line is almost all patients with less than 10 Diopters of myopia will function without glasses or contact lenses, and those with severe myopia will find their dependency on optical correction much reduced (for example, needing glasses to drive or at the movies instead of needing them to find the bathroom in the middle of the night).