y recognizable by name. Presbyopia is age-related refractive error, a condition that requires most people to need corrective lenses at some point past the age of forty. This condition causes an inability to focus. At the present time corrective laser eye surgeries correct only myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. Despite this condition at the present time, researchers are confident new procedures being developed will one day make the need for corrective lenses as a result of aging obsolete. As Dr. Daniel Durrie, director of the Hunkeler Eye Centers, a chain of eye clinics in the mid-west, maintains ôThere may come a time when people will look back and wonder why we ever hung something on our ears and nose to make our eyes see betterö (194+).
Radial keratotomy was invented in 1973, then the only means of surgically repairing refractive errors. Advances in medical technology and the development of laser surgery have greatly advanced the accuracy of such procedures. As Slade (2000) maintains, in The Complete Book of Laser Eye Surgery, ôToday, the realization of a long-awaited goal û the dream of relatively accurate unaided vision û is now possible by surgically treating the eyeö (17). The reality of laser eye surgery is that poor vision no longer has to be considered a disability or a tolerated reality. Laser surgery is performed by ophthalmologists, includes the use of the excimer laser and, according to analysts, is now a $1 billion a year business (Murray 1999).
Laser surgery is one of the most exciting advances in eye surgery. Far outweighing the promises of cataract surgery, laser eye surgery is restoring accurate unaided vision to millions of Americans. Many famous patients of the surgery like Courtney Cox, Barry Manilow, Cindy Crawford, and Braves pitcher Greg Maddux have drawn enormous media and consumer attention to the procedure. Maddux generated incredible attention on laser eye surgery when he returned to...