Set your sights

In his late teens, my nephew declared one day that he wanted to become a professional pilot after his studies. Now, even as his passion for flying is unputdownable, I could not see how I could help, given his eyesight weakness.
He has been wearing glasses from his childhood owing to a refractive error.
And now refractive surgery options are available to get one rid of one’s glasses. Says Dr Mahipal Sachdev, chairman and medical director, Centre for Sight, New Delhi, “Refractive surgery holds a lot of promise. When we hear about shortage of professional pilots in India and there is need of foreign pilots to take up the jobs here, we hope the availability of latest techniques in refractive surgery will be looked as a boon.”
For those not in the know, a refractive eye surgery is a general term for surgical procedures that can improve or correct the eye’s focus by permanently changing the shape of the cornea. The surgery is relatively painless, the full recovery period is as short as a few days, and the whole experience lasts less than 20 minutes in most cases.
By the standards of many surgeries, this is a very simple procedure. A large percentage of patients walk out of the surgery and within hours are seeing better than they’ve seen in years. Within time, generally within a few weeks’ time at the most, they see at 20/20 or 20/40.
The latest surgeries include Radial Keratotomy, Photorefractive Keratectomy, Laser In Situ Keratomileusis(LASIK), Intracorneal Ring and Implantable Contact Lens. In fact, the latest option, INTRALASE with customvue, is also now available in India.
Intralase, coupled with VISX excimer technology (customvue), is the only laser procedure certified for US Air Force and Navy.
In a short period of just three to four months, more than 700 pilots have had laser vision correction. And more than 95% of them said that after laser vision correction with Intralase and customvue, their flying capabilities improved with better visual acuity.
What’s more, commercial airlines have now approved laser vision correction as an acceptable treatment to get rid of glasses.
Of course, each airline company has its own vision standards for commercial pilots and most major air carriers allow pilots to fly after refractive surgery. But airlines may impose a waiting period (usually six months) after surgery before considering hiring an applicant after refractive surgery.
With growing awareness and acceptability of such procedures, Indian Air Force and commercial airlines are also expected to allow their pilots to undergo such surgeries, giving a fresh life to their careers. However, what needs to be kept in mind is that it is impossible to treat all refractive errors and there are risks and complications that may result from laser vision correction.
25/11/07 Amitabh Baxi/Economic Times