BNET Research Service – August, 2007
by Rebekah Blowers, Brien Aho
Navy offers newest technology: laser eye surgery keeps Sailors mission ready
For Sailors and Marines who wear glasses or contacts, the thought of waking up in the middle of the night and fumbling around on the night stand or in their rack for their glasses to see the alarm clock is a nuisance. So is not being able to qualify on mission-essential weapons without squinting through the sites. Most people would like to be able to be rid of their impaired vision.
Sailors and Marines may now have that opportunity thanks to the Navy offering the newest technology in laser eye surgery through a new piece of equipment called IntraLase.
The new procedure offers the Navy many benefits–the most important being that Navy personnel can now be fully operational faster. According to Capt. Joseph Pasternak, a surgeon at National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), Bethesda, Md., Photo-Refractive Keratectomy (PRK) takes up to three months to heal. With IntraLase, only takes a few days.
“Instead of three months out of work, it could mean two weeks. Our goal is to try to make our warfighters operational that much quicker,” said Pasternak.
Refractive surgery reduces dependence on glasses and contact lenses. Light must be focused precisely on the retina of the eye for an image to be seen clearly. The light is focused by the eye through a process called refraction or bending of light. When someone is “nearsighted,” the light is focused in front of the retina and the person can see objects close up but not far away.
