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Posts: 861
Sep 10 08 12:27 PM
There is testimony from Dr Geller himself in this magazine article that the high success rates are for large, well-defined clumps in the central visual axis and that floaters are broken up (no mention of vaporizing. I think the vaporization occurs in a small diameter, which essentially cuts a long or big floater): http://vitreousfloaters.com/images/EyeWorldNews.pdf Here's an extract from the article, which also includes a discussion of YAG treatment by Dr Mackool, who discusses the limitations. Dr Geller, implies the limitations by what he does not claim: Dr Richard J. Mackool, M.D., director, Mackool Eye Institute, New York, performed a number of YAG procedures on floaters about 15 years ago. "I found that if you're lucky, you get two or three little floaters when you YAG one big one, and the patient may like this," Dr. Mackool said. "If unlucky, the floaters rapidly return to each other, apparently because vitreous strands still interconnect them, and t he former may contract with time. All in all, the success rate isn't great, but heither is the risk.
Dr Geller states: "The most easily treated patients and those with the most dramatic results are those with large fibrillar degenerative clumps in the mid-vitreious," Dr Geller said. "Very often, these patients have masses that obscure their vision to a very large degree." In some cases, fairly stationary clumps in the mid-vitreous can actually reduce visual acuity. "I have had cases where we've documented visual acuity descress to 20/60 or 20/70, because these opacities just stay in a minimally mobile central area, and we get them back to their normal acuity", he said. "Residual floaters may still be present, but at least the patient can see." Dr Geller also finds that the YAG works well for patients that have a large mass that is intermittently in front of their visual axis. "Those things can be photo disrupted, the supporting strands can be cut, and they drop out of the visual axis and basically improve the patient's vision", Dr. Geller said. "In those types of cases, if the mass is not too large, I can usually break it up so it's dissipated and hardly even noticed".