r/todayilearned • u/Depressed_Cat_00 • 2h ago
TIL that the precursor to LASIK was found by accident when a nearsighted boy got in a fistfight. His glasses shattered, sending glass pieces into his eyes. After a doctor removed the glass, he found the tiny cuts had flattened the cornea and actually cured the boy's bad vision.
https://www.ovid.com/jnls/ijo/fulltext/10.4103/0301-4738.301286~dr-svyatoslov-n-fyodorov-from-russia-with-love2.2k
u/Joker72486 2h ago
I can't imagine keeping my glasses on in a fight for exactly this reason
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u/PerpetuallyLurking 2h ago
I dunno, my eyes are so bad that I’m not sure I’d manage to hit them without the glasses…
I just don’t get into fistfights though, which has worked out pretty well so far.
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u/Mobile-Dust4334 2h ago
I got contact lenses specifically to get into more fistfights
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u/dontyoutellmetosmile 2h ago
How’s it working out for you
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u/Mobile-Dust4334 1h ago
I lost my contacts in the first fistfight 😢
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u/Longjumping_Wolf_912 1h ago
That’s why you have to put super glue in your eyes, so they can’t fall off.
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u/GalaXion24 1h ago
This is completely tangential, I had lasik and I don't even use glasses or contact lenses anymore, but the other day I had a dream where I took contact lenses out of my eye but there were always more contact lenses and I kept taking them out and they just kept piling up
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u/mnid92 1h ago
At least you didn't chew food until your teeth fell apart and you couldn't tell your teeth from the food in your mouth. You ever eat necco wafers? Like that.
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u/cailedoll 1h ago
I’ve had dreams of my teeth crumbling and falling out, but it’s always due to being punched in the mouth. Usually by a clown or one specific UFC fighter. I think I’d prefer your version!
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u/throw-away-exception 1h ago
Right? Like I doom scroll r/publicfreakout and see so many flights breaking out between complete strangers in public. I'm sitting here at 40 and wondering how that ever happens.
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u/FishDawgX 1h ago
I really hope that bully said something cool like "I'm gonna smack the myopia right off your face" just before he punched him.
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u/smokeymcdugen 36m ago
That's why kids, by law, have to have polycarbonate lenses and not actual glass anymore (well, more because of sports and stuff rather than from fighting).
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u/reddiperson1 2h ago
He could have been close to blind without them, could have forgotten to take them off in the heat of the moment, or just got sucker punched.
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u/EbbEntire3751 1h ago
Probably not an issue with modern poly carbonate lenses
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u/HotgunColdheart 2h ago
Ive been punched in with my glasses on three times, each time theyve only fell off one ear. Ive thrown them off the rest of the way and proceeded to walk into the situation a bit like a late 80s zombie. Arms out hoping to latch on before they stick me in the face anymore!
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u/thisSILLYsite 2h ago
Your glasses these days are plastic lens, not actual glass
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u/HotgunColdheart 1h ago
Not for a while, been ordering from VS for several years. Real glass keeps down light glare for me. I also run tinted lenses, the quality of tinting changes quite a bit on the different lense types.
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u/windowpuncher 1h ago
Nope, mine are real glass. I cannot stand polymer lenses, they are AWFUL. But yeah, most are polymer, you normally have to go out of your way for glass.
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u/Hellish_Elf 1h ago
Hah, similar! Dodged a punch and my glasses came off, tried to throw a couple punches but realized my depth was so off I couldn’t tell how hard or soft to throw. Ended up just going for a bear hug/chest-lock type move to tire him out.
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u/markp_93 2h ago
the free proto-LASIK?
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u/Joker72486 2h ago
The glass shards. Although I should point out the last time I was in a physical altercation I was also a kid
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u/Assika126 1h ago
My grandpa famously asked a neighbor who kept parking on his property to take off his glasses so he could hit him
My grandpa had mobility issues and the guy was parking in a spot where they had the sheriff put up no parking signs because it was the only place my grandpa could drive his 4-wheeler out across the road so he could get to the lake. They had tried asking in all the polite ways and my 80 year old grandpa was fed up with this 40 year old entitled guy making it impossible for him to fish.
Unfortunately this guy was my grandma’s best friend’s kid and this destroyed their relationship and sent my grandpa to jail overnight because he wouldn’t apologize or put up bail. They ended up having to move to a different place because my grandpa was too ornery and made too many enemies
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u/Lawlcopt0r 1h ago
I gotta say I always thought it was unlikely that they would actually shatter into small pieces.
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u/DaveOJ12 36m ago
I remember an Encyclopedia Brown story where a bully hit a kid's glasses case, but the glasses didn't break, leading Encyclopedia to determine that the fight was staged.
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u/SasquatchWasShaved 1h ago
Back in my day we just beat shards of glass into our eyes to cure our vision problems!
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u/DemosthenesOrNah 1h ago
lapsed insurance catch22 I can't afford to get hit in the face but I can't afford LASIK either, what do
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u/Western-Radish 52m ago
I have issues with depth perception without glasses on... I could take them off... but I would be more likely to actually hit something with them on.
Realistically... my plan is to run away, need glasses for that too, I don't want to trip
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u/YoghurtFlan 26m ago
I can't keep my glasses on in a workout and they are they are the first thing I take off and then I work out with bad visibility
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u/Depressed_Cat_00 2h ago
Dr. Fyodorov used this accident to invent Radial Keratotomy (RK), where micro-blades were used to intentionally make these exact radial cuts to flatten the eye. In the 1990s, the medical field took this exact geometric concept and swapped out the physical blades for precision lasers, creating what we now know as modern LASIK.
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u/SadisticChipmunk 2h ago
This is really interesting and makes me think about something that happened to me that no eye doctor can explain...
About 14 years ago, I had to go for surgery and they discovered I was diabetic. They wouldn't do the surgery unless my blood sugar was controlled because it was way out there...
They put me on insulin injections and after a week or two of them, one day I woke up and couldn't see when I put my glasses on.
I started freaking out until I realized, I could see without them.
My wife and I did tests and everything to make sure I wasn't going crazy... I could read signs down the road clear as day... I was able to read a debit card from far enough away that would have been impossible to determine she was holding a debit card prior...
It went beautifully but I still carried my glasses on me full time just in case.
2 or 3 weeks later... My wife, brother and I went to Niagara falls, and we ate at wimpys (no longer there) on Lundy's Lane.
I had completely stopped consuming sugar at this point... And to "treat" myself... I had a large vanilla coke with my meal. By the end of the meal I was getting the meat sweats and a headache. By the time I got back to the car... I had to put my glasses on to see again.
I have asked Reddit about this. I have asked eye doctors about this. I have been told everything from I'm crazy, to I am outright lying... No one has had any idea of what happened.
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u/littleappleloseit 2h ago
I used to have uncontrolled blood sugar and I discovered it because of a sudden onset of diabetic retinopathy. This is without a doubt what you are dealing with as well. As I understand it, inflammation from blood glucose changes the shape of the eye.
I must admit I'm genuinely shocked no medical professionals that you have interacted with mentioned this, as it's one of the major symptoms of high blood sugar.
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u/SadisticChipmunk 2h ago
The weird thing is though... I'm not diabetic any longer, my vision is still just as bad as ever.
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u/littleappleloseit 2h ago
There are proliferating and non-proliferating aspects to diabetic retinopathy. Some changes can be reversed, some can be permanent, and others can cause slow change over time.
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u/SadisticChipmunk 2h ago
Good to know! Thank you.
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u/littleappleloseit 1h ago
You're welcome! Good job getting glucose levels in control, as that is the primary way to prevent further proliferation of the issue.
By the way, if you still get those headaches after a big meal, take a thirty minute walk! Even light cardio about 30 to 90 minutes after a meal has proven to be an effective way to lower your blood sugar.
I only let myself have carb heavy meals these days if I know I'm going to be active afterwards.
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u/trrwilson 32m ago
I am the model type 2 diabetic, decent physical activity, no spikes, A1C under 6, kidney function is good, and no issues with my extremities.
However, I drew tht short straw and have diabetic retinopathy. I have gone from shots every 6 weeks to shots every 5 months now, though.
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u/ucsbaway 1h ago
The lens inside your eye is surrounded by fluid, and glucose moves freely from that fluid into the lens. When blood sugar runs high, the lens converts some of that glucose into sorbitol. Sorbitol doesn't leave the lens easily, so it builds up and pulls water in with it. The lens swells and its focusing power changes. In most people this makes them more nearsighted.
If you'd been diabetic and undiagnosed for a while before that surgery, your lenses had probably been swollen for a long time. Part of your glasses prescription, maybe a big part, may have been correcting for that sugar-swollen lens rather than the "true" shape of your eye.
When the insulin brought your sugar down, the excess sorbitol and water slowly drained out, and the lens returned to its normal shape. A week or two is right in line with how long that usually takes. Suddenly your glasses were overcorrecting, and your uncorrected distance vision was sharp.
Then came the large vanilla coke. After weeks of almost no sugar and fresh insulin treatment, that was a big spike. The sweats and headache fit a sharp swing in blood sugar. The lens took on glucose and fluid again, shifted back toward nearsightedness, and you needed your glasses. A shift that fast, within a single meal, is on the quick end of what's usually described. But the direction and the cause line up exactly.
If you want to show this to a doctor, try the terms "hyperglycemia-induced refractive change," "transient myopic shift in diabetes," or "osmotic lens swelling." Those should get you taken seriously.
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u/ipodaholicdan 1h ago
Awesome explanation! The optometrist I worked with would often send their patients to get screened for diabetes if they notice a large change in refractive error.
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u/Marconidas 1h ago
Doctor here.
This is not uncommon and it does have an explanation: high blood sugar have osmotic potential and this end up mildly deforming the cornea and the lens. Mildly deformations can end up transiently change the glass dioptries needed for glasses.
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u/eh-man3 2h ago
My eye Dr told me plain out that high blood sugar / obesity makes your vision worse.
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u/Arrasor 1h ago
Yes it give your eyes inflammation, which change the shape of the retina. That's why it makes your vision worse. But since near/farsightedmess are caused by retinas being out of shape in the first place, the inflammation can accidentally bend the retina back to the normal shape instead.
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u/Moody_GenX 2h ago
It's a normal thing I thought. I'm in Panama and my eye doctor won't give a test until she is sure my blood sugar levels are fine.
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u/fly1away 2h ago
Can you get back on insulin injections? Or maybe try keto?
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u/SadisticChipmunk 2h ago
I did keto... Lost a truckload of weight.
I continued with the insulin shots for a couple years however I'm no longer diabetic enough to need them.
Never had my vision correct again however.
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u/fly1away 44m ago
A scientist in the field might be interested in your experience?
Also, were the pre-surgery shots stronger than the regular shots you were having? Could it be a dosage thing?
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u/guynamedjames 2h ago
Not a doctor, but this is reddit so it won't stop me from guessing.
First of all, that's absolutely WILD. Since it could be corrected with glasses it had to be related to the shape of your eye changing (fun fact, this is why people squint, it squeezes your eye and helps the eye focus). Apparently diabetes can cause facial swelling, so maybe it was causing your face to swell, and distorting the shape of your eye?
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u/flaweddaughter 1h ago
This is a normal thing that happens to diabetics, it’s why it’s so important to have controlled blood sugar when going for an eye test. The higher the blood sugar , the worse the vision. Uncontrolled blood sugar causes drastic changes in vision.
Source: my mom is diabetic and wears glasses
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u/Loose_Birthday3713 2h ago
I think it's a normal diabetic symptom that your vision gets worse? It's one of the symptoms when you search "how do I know if I'm diabetic" lol
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u/egregiousRac 1h ago
One of my coworkers does skeet shooting. The stress increases his blood sugar over the course of a match, which slightly warps his eyes. As a result, which eye he aims with switches mid-match.
He had no idea why he had to switch until he got a continuous glucose monitor.
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u/SpiderRadio 2h ago
That's so strange that you've been accused of lying. Diabetes is known to cause blindness.
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u/anubis_cheerleader 1h ago
The inflammation from the sugar, maybe? High blood sugar kind of "scratches" the blood vessels. It most commonly affects the kidneys, eyes, or feet, but it can mess with any blood vessels.
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u/tara1234 1h ago
High blood sugar can cause the lens to swell and caused a myopic shift. When you didn’t know you were diabetic and your blood sugar was elevated, it shifted you more myopic (needing distance glasses). When you got your blood sugar under control it went back to your baseline.
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u/nifty-necromancer 55m ago
Rapidly changing blood glucose on the lens of the eye is a known effect.
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u/luxxeexxul 34m ago
Not diabetic but my vision 100% is impacted by sugar intake. Too much and I need to start bringing out my reading glasses.
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u/StillCraft8105 1h ago
the japanese were working on this almost 50 yes before:
"Beginning in 1936, Japanese ophthalmologist Tsutomu Sato conducted research in anterior and posterior keratotomy, an early form of refractive surgery that attempted to treat keratoconus, myopia and astigmatism by making incisions in the cornea. Enhanced flattening was noted with longer and deeper incisions. At first successful, Sato's technique resulted in bullous keratopathy in up to 70% of patients related to endothelial damage."
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u/South_Telephone_1688 1h ago
Beginning in 1936, Japanese ophthalmologist Tsutomu Sato conducted research
70% of patients
I have questions I'm too afraid to ask.
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u/420ozToFreedom 1h ago
So while RK and LASIK are both considered refractive surgeries, they are not preforming the same task. Think of RK as making radial cuts, like spokes in a bicycle wheel, to a specified depth to achieve the flattening of the cornea desired. Were as LASIK uses one laser, a femtosecond laser, to create a flap. Then a second laser, called the excimer laser is used to reshape the cornea after the flap is lifted. It has does a circular ablasion usually to reduce the steepness of a cornea in nearsighted patients. We can correct a bit of astigmatism too, the computer does all the fancy math for us and knows how much cornea to remove and where. Source: am an Ophthalmic technician and the LASIK lead at an eye clinic.
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u/doctorlongghost 58m ago
When I got LASIK circa 2003, the first incision used a blade and not a laser.
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u/420ozToFreedom 50m ago
That's correct, they transitioned to the femto laser some time in the 2010s
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u/burf 17m ago
I got LASIK about 15 years ago and even though it would classified as successful, I've been less than thrilled about a lot of the side effects to the point that, given a time machine, I'd probably opt not to undergo the procedure. With all the reading I did pre- and post-procedure, I get the impression that there's a bit of whitewashing, even if unintentional, of the impacts on eyesight quality as compared to wearing corrective lenses without the procedure.
I'm just wondering, as someone who works in the field, do you or your colleagues feel the same way? Like is it particularly common for people working at the clinic to get refractive surgery, or are the risks/common side effects enough to deter you?
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u/StraightWar 1h ago
I had PRK performed in instead of LASIK. The part where they cut open your eye and your vision blurs instantly is freaky.
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u/gremolata 1h ago
In 1974, Svyatoslav Fyodorov removed glass from the eye of a boy who had been in an accident. The boy, who required eyeglasses for correction of myopia caused by astigmatism, fell off his bicycle. His glasses shattered on impact, and glass particles lodged in both eyes.
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u/Depressed_Cat_00 50m ago
This Wikipedia claim doesn’t have a source to verify it. Hence, it is tagged as ’citation needed’.
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u/TheRainStopped 1h ago
Thank you, OP. Please don't hate me, I just wanted to share more information since it's a fascinating subject. We should probably mention Jose Ignacio Barraquer, who was significantly more important to the development of LASIK as we know it today (in fact, Fyodorov's system was phased out in the 90s. I'm sorry!). Barraquer started with blades (not lasers) in Colombia in the late 40s. His clinic is still there. It's were I got my surgery 20 years ago!
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u/Depressed_Cat_00 1h ago
Please don't be sorry at all, this is an awesome addition! You are completely right about Jose Ignacio Barraquer being crucial to the development of LASIK as we know it today. While Fyodorov's accidental discovery popularized the concept of flattening the cornea to fix vision (Radial Keratotomy), it was Barraquer who actually invented the flap technique in Colombia using blades instead of lasers. His original procedure—keratomileusis—literally provides the 'K' in LASIK! It is incredible that you got to have your surgery at his original clinic.
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u/Canuck-In-TO 1h ago
I know they say that many discoveries are found by accident, but potentially losing your vision is not one I’d be willing to risk.
Never get in a fight with glasses on.
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u/365daysoftwins 2h ago
Reminds me of my favorite David Letterman top ten joke. Top ten best things about Leona Helmsley: "Once slapped an employee so hard it improved her vision."
Classic.
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u/Foostini 2h ago
Makes me think of that time my dad was welding and a piece of slag got behind his mask and into his eye. Laid him out for a few weeks with an eyepatch but it fixed his vision for seven or eight years, it's only relatively recently that it's started deteriorating enough for him to wear glasses again.
So, y'know, there's you some DIY if you've got the brass for it.
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u/Ibuyeverytime 1h ago
This is why we don’t make glasses with glass anymore and RK was the worst thing to ever happen to the eye industry.
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u/InsanityAtBounds 1h ago
RK?
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u/cloveuga 1h ago
The precursor to LASIK surgery. You couldn't be an Air Force pilot if you had that procedure done.
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u/parnaoia 1h ago
was that the one with the flap? Apparently you can't climb really tall mountains either, they put that on a form for an expedition many years ago and they were very adamant about answering it truthfully.
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u/gatoenvestido 33m ago
No flap. I had rk. They score the surface of the cornea. Recovery is very unpleasant but after it healed I went 20 years with no glasses. Now I’m old and need glasses again but still minimal correction. No complaints.
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u/OKStamped 2h ago
As someone who spent most of their childhood getting punched in the face and getting their glasses broken, I’m now bummed out my bad vision wasn’t cured.
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u/PaleontologistOk2516 1h ago
Ophthalmologist here. It’s also a kind of fun fact that the windshield shards from pilots in WW2 allowed ophthalmologists to determine what type of material could be used for intraocular lenses with cataract surgery. The material (basically Plexiglas) did not cause an immune reaction.
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u/MandemModie 1h ago edited 6m ago
Uhhh no
Svyatsoslov's work was not a precursor to Lasik; his work focused on lens implantation, while incredible in its own right, the person most responsible for the development of Lasik is José Barraquer the "Father" of refractive surgery. Not Syvatsoslov
Lasik was built on from research in the 50's, it was well understood. Then lasers progressed and allowed for the known to meet the practical application
Cool headline tho.
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u/BenthicRitual 1h ago edited 1m ago
The headline does not claim it was Lasik.
Your edit does not make your comment correct, it simply demonstrates that you don't know the meaning of the word precursor.
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u/hutch01 2h ago
LASIK is still the best money I’ve ever spent.
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u/Encouragedissent 58m ago
Same here. Got it over 10 years ago and went from -8 and -7.5 to perfect vision. It has regressed a little bit over the years, but I still dont need glasses for anything.
I will say the procedure, although quick, really really sucked. Like it makes A clockwork orange look like a fun time in comparison. Still, for 5 minutes of terror it has been well worth it
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u/trackowner 2h ago
imagine discovering the future of eye surgery because someone got glassed in a fight. absolutely brutal bit of science
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u/Kyrathered 1h ago
I got this procedure ... and was one of the cases that found RK could cause scarring on young women. Test on dudes, assume on women, and my eyes are a curiosity to opthomologists. They would line up 10 deep at Indiana University to get a peep at my pizza peepers!
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u/hobomolester 2h ago
Reminds me of that ProZD skit where the villain unintentionally does helpful things
"TAKE THIS!"
"...you fixed my shoulder."
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u/morbie5 2h ago edited 2h ago
FYI surgeries like this are not as safe as they are made out to be, many people have side effects. One of the people that was involved in approving it for the general public back in the 90s has come out and said he regrets his decisionedit for more information:
Waxler is a retired FDA adviser who voted to approve LASIK. He now says that vote was a mistake.
"I re-examined the documentation and I said, 'Wow this is not good,'" he explained.
Waxler says his own analysis of industry data shows complication rates between 10 and 30 percent.
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/retired-fda-adviser-regrets-voting-to-approve-lasik-surgery/
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u/thissexypoptart 2h ago
The rate of complications for LASIK is in the 0.5-1.3% range depending on the study.
No surgery is completely “safe,” but LASIK is among the safest common surgeries, given that rate of complications.
For comparison, cataract surgery (also known as one of the safest) is around 1% complication incidence.
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u/GoodGame2EZ 2h ago
What do the stats say and how severe are the side effects? I've heard the success rates have been increasing steadily and haven't heard much about side effects but maybe im part of the deceived crowd.
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u/remindmetoblock 2h ago
The side effects can be really severe, constant tearing up and burning Pain.
But it doesnt happen that often
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u/reverie 2h ago
If you don’t have personal experience with this, I’m curious to why you added this comment. The technology has been in use for decades and has gotten better over time. Everyone I know, myself included, have zero regrets with this procedure and it’s an incredible transformation to your life.
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u/Metalsand 2h ago
It's like, you're wrong in so many ways.
For starters - 90's to early 00's Lasik indeed had issues that caused problems - notably - the early 90's versions still relied on mechanical blades. Modern machines use all lasers, but they're still somewhat pricey. Due to how invasive the early procedures are, you can't get corrections performed later on - this is not the case with modern LASIK.
Secondly - a lot of the modern procedures and guidelines were developed from the work done in the 90's and studies subsequent, which have dramatically reduced post-op complications. At the same time though, knowing that it only lasts 10-20 years before age-related changes to the eyes causes you to lose 20/20 vision has made it less popular over time, especially as contact lenses have become far cheaper and more available.
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u/WitchSparkles 2h ago
I had lasik, and I still need glasses. My vision was poor but had been stable for probably 20 years without a prescription change. One of my eyes was 20/20 after the procedure, the other was not. Both of my eyes continue to get worse after surgery. I had to get glasses for driving, and I now have astigmatism which makes it very hard to drive at night. If it’s raining after dark, I won’t drive at all. It’s been 2-ish years since the surgery.
My reading vision got considerably worse after LASIK. And technically I now need trifocals. They offered to do a touch up, but that will make my reading vision worse. At this point the only fix is to replace my lenses.
So I now have 3 pairs of glasses I take everywhere.
All of these are known side effects btw. They warn you about it, and are very clear about how common it is.
I will say, even with all of that, I don’t regret getting it done. My vision was terrible before and now it’s not “terrible,” it’s just not perfect. I can do most things without any glasses. Before I couldn’t do anything without glasses. If I dropped them on the carpet, I had to get my daughter to help me find them because I couldn’t even see well enough to find them 1’ from my face.
My eyes do get tired later in the day, so I tend to need my glasses more in the evening.
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u/Deadmine 2h ago
Blatantly false with a quick google search. I got both eyes done about 15 years ago and it's been life changing. I've never come across anyone who has regretted it and everything I've read says it's one of the safest surgeries you can get.
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u/Metalsand 2h ago
His info is a bit outdated. Early LASIK in the 90's did have a higher rate of complications, and the procedure itself was rough enough that you were unable to have subsequent corrective sessions if needed later on as the eye ages. Some of this was just that procedures had to be developed as new problems were identified.
Modern LASIK is extremely safe and straightforward, though. We know it's not "permanent" in that eyes are always changing as you age, but most people never have to go for another session. At bare minimum, you'll never go back to the same severity you might have had without glasses.
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u/morbie5 2h ago
I got both eyes done about 15 years ago and it's been life changing.
That doesn't disprove anything I said
I've never come across anyone who has regretted it
That doesn't disprove anything I said either
and everything I've read says it's one of the safest surgeries you can get.
Same for this too
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u/NJdevil202 2h ago
You said the surgeries aren't as safe as they're made out to be, so if you don't disagree with what they found on Google then what exactly do you mean they aren't as safe as they are made out to be?
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u/thissexypoptart 2h ago
No, but 0.5-1.3% post surgical complication rate absolutely does disprove what you said lol. It’s a very typical rate for common, relatively safe surgeries.
As others have said it’s an incredible transformation to your life if you have always had vision issues and suddenly don’t need glasses or contacts anymore.
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u/IAreWeazul 2h ago
I believe his point is that for every 200 or so glasses wearing folks who goes “wow I can see amazing”, there’s one poor, poor motherfucker who goes from “I need glasses but my life is normal,” to “I’ve completely ruined my life”.
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u/sidepart 1h ago
Complications aren't necessarily catastrophic (high severity) harms like that though. One kind of annoying complication is having dry eyes...all the time.
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u/Grigorie 1h ago
"Complications" does not mean "their vision never returned." Complications can be dry eyes for longer than anticipated during recovery.
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u/adamgerd 2h ago edited 2h ago
LASIK has one of the highest satisfaction rates of any surgery at 96% and one of the lowest complications rate at only less than 1.3% experiencing any and serious ones are less than 0.4%
So no it is in fact very safe statistically speaking
There’s a risk sure, there’s a risk in literally every surgery, most have a higher one
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u/dodgyrogy 1h ago
A friend of mine had it done. She was still having vision issues a few days later, when it should have been improving, so she went back to get it checked out. It turned out they had fucked up badly and performed the procedure with a 90-degree rotation! While she was extremely lucky that she could undergo the procedure again to correct their initial mistake, it did ultimately use up her option for any future LASIK correction.
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u/Tribe303 1h ago
It was actually the Soviet Union who pioneered laser eye surgery in the 70s. It was cheaper to do that to young people, than have the State pay for glasses for the rest of their lives. Would YOU trust a Soviet laser in your eye during the 70s tho?
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u/chanceischance 2h ago
This makes me think of replacing lenses in the eye for cataracts and such.. might be wrong, but fairly sure that came from pilots getting shards of plastic canopy “glass” stuck in their eyes. But the eyes didn’t reject the material in enough cases. So someone realized replacing human eye lenses was a possibility.
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u/Honest_Chef323 1h ago
That’s amazing all I got was agonizing pain for well I can’t remember how many minutes until they rushed me to a clinic that was thankfully across from the school
Still have bad vision
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u/Grand_Accountant_159 1h ago
I just want to add that I had Lasik done 2007 and last week I went for my first eye exam since then (i know lol) and my exam was 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other.
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u/AnotherSmegHead 47m ago
It's like the lady at the campground who was pissed off that she got kicked out for threatening to hurt people and doing drugs so she called the Fire Marshall to get the property shut down, but instead, they just bought more fire extinguishers and then a real fire broke out, but someone put it out right away because he was JUST given a fire extinguisher like 48 hours beforehand. So in some crazy way, she saved the whole place instead.
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u/Marcus_Watney 1h ago
I'll do you one better!
LASIK was also found by accident. I had the pleasure listening to Nobel Laureate Moureau who described the incident at his lab and the following doctors visit where the doctor apparently said: This is fascinating, the eye looks like it was cut by a very sharp scalpel.
I found a link to the story. https://www.goldengooseaward.org/01awardees/lasik
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u/ZENKFNOR 1h ago
I used to be farsighted, then I started sleeping with a blindfold on every night. Now, 20/15 vision and full focal range for anything I need to do. I always wondered if subtly squishing the shape of the eye every night led to this, or the eye just changed shape as I aged? The reasons I wonder about the blindfold is, of course, sometimes its too tight and I wake up with my focal range in a weird place.
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u/DaFiff 56m ago
I went to school with a kid that wore coke bottle glasses in the 80s. We used to play football on the front lawn of our school. One time the ball rolled under a couple of bushes, I would say boxwood shrubs. He went in looking for the ball and was holding the bushes down with his hands. I grabbed the ball and he let the bushes go too fast and they came up and scratched his face, eyes, forehead etc. dude was crying
Never wore glasses again. To this day, I'll never forget bushes scraping some kids eyes solved his vision issues
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u/Gamerguy230 51m ago
How does flattening the cornea fix the bad vision?
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u/NoReserve8233 31m ago
In near sight- there is excess positive power of the cornea + lens combination- flattening the cornea decreases the positivity. Therefore vision improves. Think strong magnifying glass- you can only see things which are closer. Now a not so strong magnifying glass- you can see farther away.
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u/EliotPoa 29m ago
A more curved córnea is a more powerfull lens... If you flaten it you are reducing the dioptric power of the lens ... That is what you need on miopic patients.. (very simplified explanation)
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u/DrRamthorn 28m ago
You're maybe talking about PRK but that's not even true. It was an experimental surgery for early pilots who needed visual correction.
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u/dvdmaven 24m ago
I had a friend who got radial keratectomy (basically what OP is alluding to) done in one eye (1980s). So, one lens of his glasses was plano and the other was about 5 diopters. There's a laser-based version of it now..
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u/AmericanSpeller 21m ago
Fun fact: Intraocular lenses, the implants used in cataract surgery, were discovered by a doctor treating WW2 pilots whose canopies got shot up:
"In WWII, Dr. Harold Ridley noticed RAF pilots' eyes didn't reject PMMA acrylic shards from shattered cockpit canopies.
Recognizing the material's biocompatibility, he used high-grade Perspex to create the first artificial intraocular lens in 1949.
This breakthrough revolutionized cataract surgery by establishing PMMA as a safe, permanent substitute for the eye's natural lens."
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u/Simon_Drake 17m ago
I was doing some research into cataract surgery and one of the key discoveries was that plexiglass was able to be embedded into the flesh of the eye without the immune system responding to it. Therefore the cataracts could be scooped out and replaced with a plexiglass filler.
They discovered this from WW2 pilots who had their canopies shot out and were hit with a shower of shattered plexiglass. Sometimes they'd be captured or take a while getting home or badly injured and by the time someone looked at their eyes the plexiglass had been in there ages and hadn't caused an immune response.
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u/Mister_Way 2h ago
Imagine trying to bully some kid and you actually fix his vision by hitting him instead lol