Latest News. US Air Force Approves LASIK Surgery for Pilots
SARLINGTON,
Va. — The Air Force has
become the first
branch of the military to allow aspiring
pilots and aircrew
members to apply,
even if they have had LASIK corrective eye surgery.
Effective May 21, the
policy change also
removes the altitude
and high-performance
aircraft restrictions
for people who have
had LASIK, which is
short for “laser
in-situ keratomileusis.”
Since 2001, the Air
Force has allowed applicants
to try for spots as
pilots or aircrews
on high-performance
aircraft if they had
a different kind of
corrective eye surgery
known as photo refractive
keratectomy, or PRK.
Air Force surgeons
said they needed more
time to evaluate LASIK,
a newer procedure that
causes less pain to
patients and requires
less recovery time.
Like PRK, LASIK works
by using an excimer
laser to change the
shape of the cornea,
the clear covering
on the eye.
In LASIK, surgeons
use a knife, called
a microkeratome, to
cut a flap in the cornea,
leaving a hinge at
one end. The flap is
folded back to reveal
the middle section,
or “stroma,” of
the cornea, and pulses
from a computer-controlled
laser vaporize a portion
of the stroma. The
flap is replaced, and
the patient is sent
on his or her way.
Air Force surgeons
said they were concerned
with this LASIK flap,
which doesn’t
exist with PRK surgery.
The surgeons noted
that pilots and crews
aboard some airframes,
such as C-17s, AC-130s,
or U-2s, fly and work
at very high-altitude,
low-oxygen conditions.
No one knew how well
LASIK-treated eyes
would hold up, according
to an Air Force Medical
Service Web site on
the U.S. Air Force
Refractive Surgery
Program.
Air Force surgeons
also were concerned
about what might happen
to the healed-over
flap if pilots or aircrew
had to eject at high
altitudes, but studies
eventually showed there
was little to no effect,
according to the Web
site.
The Marines and Navy
also allow pilot and
aircrew candidates
to have undergone PRK,
and are studying LASIK,
Jan Herman, a spokesman
for the Navy’s
Bureau of Medicine
and Surgery, said Tuesday.
In March, Capt. Christopher
Armstrong, director
of aerospace medicine
for the Navy, told
Navy Times that the
Bureau of Medicine
and Surgery was in
the final administrative
stages of approving
LASIK for Navy and
Marine pilots and aviation
candidates, and that
he expected to be recommending
waivers for the procedure
for aviators for both
services this fall.
The Army, meanwhile,
only allows pilot and
aviator candidates
who are enrolled in
the U.S. Army Aeromedical
Research Laboratory-approved
protocol, or study
program, to follow
PRK and LASIK through
flight school to have
the surgery. All other
pilots and candidates
are not eligible to
have the surgery.
For more information
on the USAir Force’s
policies, including
information on applying
for LASIK or PRK, go
to http://airforcemedicine.afms.mil/USAF-RS
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