The Comanagement Of Radial Keratotomy.

Radial keratotomy has definitely become a household name in recent years. This procedure which everyone seems to be talking about is the biggest thing to happen since contact lenses were introduced to replace glasses. Now people want to be rid of glasses as well as contact lenses. With this procedure people expect and hope for perfect vision without the help of any of the conventional methods known to correct for refractive error. Radial keratotomy is not the first technique to be made available to correct for refractive error. Surgical procedures to correct for Ametropia have been around, in theory at least, since early in the 19th century. The ancient Chinese began by suggesting the use of heavy sandbags to correct for myopia. The recommendation was to place bags of sand over closed eyelids during the sleeping hours with the expectation that this would flatten the cornea and in tum reduce the refractive error. This technique did not catch on due to the fact that the flattening effect of the sandbags probably did not last very long. Sometime early in the 19th century Dr. Ball fabricated a different method to correct for myopia. He designed an instrument similar to a
clamp which was placed over the eyes again to flatten the cornea. This technique was not successful for the same reasons the Chinese were unable to correct myopia with the use of sandbags. Following these early unsuccessful attempts to eliminate the need for glasses came several surgical techniques that proved to have a little more promise. Keratomileusis, keratophak:ia, epikeratophak:ia and stromal thermokeratoplasty are a few of these procedures.