Superbowl, American Football & VISION: The ASTIGMATISM Connection
Scoring Astigmatism Touchdowns for Three Decades; GulaniVision!
Football and Eyes: World-renowned Jacksonville Lasik surgeon, Dr. Arun Gulani, is passionate about taking football-shaped (Astigmatism) Corneas straight to 20/20 vision.
Astigmatism
Astigmatism (uh-STIG-muh-tiz-um) is a common imperfection in the curvature of your eye and can be present from birth or develop later in life.
Like a camera, the eye has a cornea (viewfinder) and a lens. Astigmatism occurs when this cornea (Corneal Astigmatism) or the lens (Lenticular Astigmatism), inside your eye, has a slightly different surface curvature in one direction from the other.
Signs and Symptoms of Astigmatism
People with astigmatism often have blurred vision which can be associated with fatigue, eyestrain, and distorted vision. In most cases, astigmatism is present from birth. It can also develop after an eye surgery, disease or injury eg. Lasik complications by inexperienced surgeons.
In majority of cases, the shape of the cornea decides vision. There are two main types of astigmatism that often occur (with the rule and against the rule depending on the axis) with myopia (nearsightedness) or hyperopia (farsightedness). Nearsighted corneas are steep or more curved, farsighted corneas are flatter and astigmatic corneas are shaped like an American football (oval) as opposed to being shaped like a basketball (spherical).
Astigmatism may therefore occur in combination with other refractive errors, like nearsightedness (Myopia) or Farsightedness (Hyperopia) and even Presbyopia (After 40 reading glasses0. Also, cataracts can have astigmatism associated with poor vision.
Diagnosing Astigmatism
Astigmatism can be diagnosed during your routine eye exam in most cases but advanced diagnostic technologies like Focused Keratometry, Corneal topography (very much like the earth’s land topography or shape), 3 dimensional tomography and refraction (Glasses or contact lens prescriptions) can further detail the specifics towards measurement, type of astigmatism and treatment modalities. These technologies also help rule out any pathology like Keratoconus that may be associated with Astigmatism.
Correcting Astigmatism with Surgery
Why would you want a Basketball shaped eye (cornea) to watch Football?
Except for El Greco’s success with his paintings (which today we understand resulted from his Astigmatism), most people we have seen with astigmatism usually suffer in their work and life. So we would suggest that you do seek correction.
The treatment for Astigmatism can be divided into Non-Surgical; using Glasses or TORIC Contact lenses (Contact Lenses with built in astigmatism correction) and Surgical using Advanced LASIK techniques, Lens based techniques and unlimited custom designed combinations.
Surgical Options can be further divided into three main categories:
- In young patients of LASIK candidacy with no Cataracts who can benefit from of all forms of NexGen Lasik surgeries like LaZrPlastique.
- Elder patients with Cataracts who can take advantage of having a special TORIC lens implanted to correct astigmatism and cataracts simultaneously during cataract surgery.
- Patients can also have combination Lasik + Cataract surgery: In cases of previous cataract surgery with residual astigmatism, they can have Lasik surgery while patients with previous Lasik surgery with astigmatism can during their cataract surgery have Toric lens implant. Also, in some cases of extremely high astigmatism, they can plan for staged cataract and Lasik surgery, both in sequence.
Astigmatism can additionally be corrected in other ways such as using corneal relaxing incisions (LRI) with Diamond knives or Femtosecond lasers. In certain cases, astigmatism can also be used to the advantage of corneal scar patients that are approached with the principles of Corneoplastique or even patients that have had Monofocal lens implants (IOLs) previously in reaching their vision “End-Zones.”
The final aim is always vision without any glasses.
Even patients with previous surgery ie. Lasik or cataract surgery and even Radial Keratotomy surgery can have Advanced Laser surgery to reach their goals of vision without glasses.
So make sure your cornea is Basketball shaped to enjoy Football season.
It is Dr. Gulani’s firm belief that astigmatism in any form as a residual refractive error in any corneal, cataract, LASIK, and the entire spectrum of the Kerato-lenticulo-refractive surgery sector is unacceptable in the quest for vision exceeding 20/20.
In Dr. Gulani’s quest for perfect vision, he aims to correct every level of astigmatism down to zero as he further expands his ability in Premium LASIK and cataract surgeries in particular.
At Gulani Vision Institute we see numerous patients from all over the world who are seeking second opinions and correction of complications. It is common to see patients who express dissatisfaction with their eye surgeons. These surgeons in many cases actually might have performed good surgeries, but after using expensive technologies including Premium intraocular lens (IOL) implants, they left their patients with residual astigmatism that was considered to be within an acceptable range (for that surgeon). Many of these patients travel to Jacksonville Eye Surgeon, Dr. Gulani seeking his advanced Laser corrective techniques.
Dr. Gulani has a track record of fixing some of the highest astigmatism in the world even up to 30.00 diopters and has the confidence to fix very low levels like 0.4 diopters while fixing complications and dissatisfied patients of colleagues globally. These happy patients have solidified Dr. Gulani’s zero tolerance of astigmatism.
In summary, Astigmatism is a visual handicap that can adversely affect your life and in most cases is treatable with modern technologies.
Richard was referred to Dr. Gulani with extreme Farsightedness and extreme Astigmatism with Keratoconus with Nystagmus with Dense Subluxated Traumatic Cataract with head shaking Tremors and inability to Speak due to tracheostomy. He was rejected by many eye surgeons he sought due to level of difficulty involved and reached a point of blindness where he couldn’t even walk without help.
Here he is below after Dr. Gulani designed a unique cataract surgery to fix all his problems and brought him straight to Vision without any glasses and made him open his eyes to see the world’s only football stadium with swimming pools among the first in the world 7 years ago.
Last year when DJ Khaled did the Super Bowl halftime show, Dr. Gulani had finished performing his mother’s Complex Cataract Surgery straight to 20/20 vision where he sent a gift of his autographed book; “Keys” – by DJ Khaled.
Among many Professional football players, Mike Peterson under went Cut LaZrPlastique surgery for extreme Astigmatism straight to 20/20 and he brought his wife too for her surgery as Dr. Gulani created a moment of letting his little son see the surgery.
Vince Lombardi’s daughter, Virginia was referred to Dr. Gulani for her cataract surgery and here she is showing him the famous ring while they talked about her iconic father and the trophy that is synonymous with the Super Bowl.
With our Superstar 49er Joe “Cool” Montana and Reggie as they autographed this football.
Cameron underwent Dr. Gulani’s Nex-Gen LASIK to treat his astigmatism despite his thin cornea.
Dr. Gulani has been correcting Astigmatism in Jacksonville for the world as he corrects all levels of astigmatism including those associated with Keratoconus, Radial Keratotomy, previous Lasik and Cataract surgery while addressing complications for colleagues from all over the globe. He has been taking Botched Lasik and Cataract Surgeries to 20/20 vision End-zones for over three decades.