The Yahoo Ectasia Support Group has been in existence for quite some time. SE supports and encourages people to avail themselves of this resource.

To read Gail Keziah's synopsis of Ectasia, please click here.

To go to a private support group on Yahoo, please click here.

Many thanks to Gail for her tireless efforts to assist people with ectasia.

My efforts would be worthless without the docs who have volunteered their time. Thanks guys!

Ophthalmologists: Dr. Percy Amoils, Dr. Steve Dingeldein, Dr. Bill Trattler, Dr. Ricardo Trigo, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, Dr. Gregg Feinerman

Optometrists: Dr. Gregg Russell, Dr. Greg "leukoma" Gemoules, DavOD Hartzok and Dr. Jason Jedlicka.

It's a testament to the docs that Gail thanks here - they're also participators here at SE - both efforts, SE's and Gail's, are cooperatives that initially sprang up outside established systems and those efforts, while initially met with scepticism, have proven to be positives for the patients and the doctors as resources hereto non-existent yet clearly needed.

Big thank you to Gail and the doctors Percy Amoils, Steve Dingeldein, Bill Trattler, Ricardo Trigo, Brian Boxer Wachler, Gregg Feinerman, Gregg Russell, Greg "leukoma" Gemoules, DavOD Hartzok and Jason Jedlicka.

I am honored to be considered part of this effort. I thank Ron for his trust and Gail for her
kindness and enthusiasm.
Altough I practice in Mexico I will be glad to help in any way I can. Also I want to say that I have been practicing refractive surgery since 1983, that I performed a lot of RK's and I still do it in a few instances. I never liked LASIK, and all my colleagues in Mexico know that. Like all of us who prefer PRK, I have been doing it with an epithelial flap long before somebody put a new name on it.
One of the goals of an ectasia study group has to be its prevention. And since refractive surgery will not disappear tomorrow, people should reconsider surface laser despite the longer recovery time. After all, it has been around for 11 years and there are no reports of long term complications, as in LASIK. So for all those considering vision improvement, get all the information and think not only about the day after surgery, but about the rest of your life.

Gail,
I am just learning about this Ectasia as I am a 20 year post RK patient (one of the first ever done) and now am expericing some Ectasia in 1 eye...I am totaly reading all I can and am surprised to see so far that I haven't heard of anyother RK patients having problems...But I'm sure that there are. Have you anyother information that I might need to read? Thanks Again!
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gail Keziah:
My efforts would be worthless without the docs who have volunteered their time. Thanks guys!

Ophthalmologists: Dr. Percy Amoils, Dr. Steve Dingeldein, Dr. Bill Trattler, Dr. Ricardo Trigo, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, Dr. Gregg Feinerman

Optometrists: Dr. Gregg Russell, Dr. Greg "leukoma" Gemoules, DavOD Hartzok and Dr. Jason Jedlicka.[/QUOTE

I hope you will find some of the following information helpful. Progressive ectasia after LASIK causes progressive myopia and astigmatism. Progressive hyperopia occurs after RK as you know. You are not alone as the PERK study shows.

"Progression of RK is a sort of ectasia - there is probably stretching of lammellar fibres at a deep level below the incisions. Because the RK rendered the cornea biomechanically unstable - it is unable to withstand intraocular pressure without progressively bending over the years."
- Dan Z Reinstein, MD
http://surgicaleyes.atinfopop.com/4/OpenTopic?q=Y&a=tpc&s=636293455&f=6334052921&m=3834053751&p=1


http://www.ascrs.org/publications/jcrs/gueditoct9.htm#BIB3
One of the painful lessons refractive surgeons have had to learn is that this small safety factor is easily violated. In the Prospective Evaluation of Radial Keratotomy Study and other long-term studies of eyes treated by radial keratotomy, it took more than 5 years to recognize that late keratectasia of the paracentral corneal could lead to progressive hyperopia.
Waring, III G.O., Lynn M.J. and McDonnell P.J., Results of the Prospective Evaluation of Radial Keratotomy (PERK) Study 10 years after surgery, Arch Ophthalmol. 1994; 112:1298-1308.

Refractive Results of Radial Keratotomy After 10 Years
http://jrs.slackinc.com/vol146/charp.pdf