
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 20, 1994                   TAG: 9410200072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

FDA TO RULE ON LASER EYE SURGERY

Donna Citrin was too scared to have a doctor slice her cornea in conventional eye surgery. So the nearsighted Maryland woman went to Canada to get her eyes zapped with a laser that freed her from glasses.

Doctors and patients are touting the experimental excimer laser, and today a government panel will try to decide if it lives up to the testimonials.

``The excimer laser will dramatically improve our ability to reduce or eliminate nearsightedness,'' said Dr. Roy Rubinfeld, a Georgetown University professor and ophthalmologist who referred Citrin to Canada.

``It is going to be a very important tool,'' agreed Dr. Keith Thompson of Emory University, who has done 300 laser surgeries himself. ``But it's important that people realize it's not going to be the Holy Grail, it's not going to be as perfect as glasses and contact lenses.''

Now, people who want to abandon the glasses or contact lenses that help them see at a distance opt for a surgery called radial keratotomy, or RK.

In RK, a surgeon makes tiny diagonal cuts on the cornea, the clear tissue covering the eye's iris and pupil. The cuts flatten the cornea to bring vision closer to normal. The surgeon must be careful because a too-flattened cornea causes farsightedness, the inability to see close-up.

The excimer laser also flattens the cornea, using a cold beam of ultraviolet light to vaporize corneal cells. Proponents say this procedure, called photoreactive keratectomy or PRK, is safer and more precise than RK. It already is used in 40 countries.

But the Food and Drug Administration is awaiting scientific proof that the laser is safe and effective. Today, an FDA advisory committee will study data from six years of clinical trials and recommend whether FDA should approve the laser.

``I didn't want somebody slicing my eye like a pizza,'' said Citrin, who was treated in Toronto in 1992. ``I felt it was very unfair that every other country can have this [laser] and we couldn't.''

But Johns Hopkins University's Dr. Dimitri Azar, who is researching PRK, urges caution. ``Just because it's a laser doesn't mean it's a safe procedure.''

by CNB