SDNDS - Refractive Surgery
Nearsightedness, astigmatism, and perhaps by the end of 1998, farsightedness, can all be corrected by either directly lasering the surface of the cornea or by making a very thin cap and lasering under this cap in an operation called LASIK. Both procedures take less than five minutes per eye. Most people can have bilateral surgery on the same day. In addition, topical anesthetic is the only anesthesia necessary. The newest keratome makes the procedure very safe for the LASIK procedure. PRK involves just two days of healing under a soft contact lens. Both of these methods are extremely accurate and have essentially replaced Radial Keratotomy and Astigmatic Keratotomy as the procedure to correct nearsightedness and astigmatism.
Dr. Murphy has nearly a thousand cases in total of both PRK & LASIK. He feels he is using a superior keratome for LASIK and is obtaining extremely accurate results refractively. The average patient sees 20/20 uncorrected in each lasered eye the following day.
Anesthesia - Cataract Surgery
A new cataract surgery technique extracts the existing cataract and places a foldable
acrylic lens implant through less than a ¼ inch incision through the clear cornea. No
stitching is involved and no injections to numb the eye are necessary. Patients can see
immediately after the procedure and, typically, see nearly their best corrected visual
acuitywithin thirty minutes after completion of the operation. The average operating time
is twelve minutes. Laser is not used as a means of removing the lens material. At the
current time laser is being investigated, but the time honored method which is very
sophisticated is using high frequency sound. This procedure is called Phacoemulsification.
Dr. Murphy is a nationally recognized expert in the technique of clear cornea, topical anesthetic removal of cataracts.