San Diego’s large military community will continue to benefit from a growing Department of Defense-funded program that provides free refractive surgery to medically eligible active duty servicemen and women.
While most near- or farsighted individuals struggle with contacts in front of the bathroom mirror, military personnel deployed to Iraq often battle 120-degree temperatures, gusting winds, sandstorms and Spartan accommodations. Similarly challenging, glasses interrupt the seal of protective gas masks, they scratch and they trap dust and dirt.
\u201cEsos son solo una fracci\u00f3n de los problemas que enfrentan nuestras fuerzas en servicio activo\u201d, dijo el Capit\u00e1n Steve Schallhorn, oftalm\u00f3logo del Centro M\u00e9dico Naval de San Diego. \u201cAl reducir la dependencia de anteojos y lentes de contacto, las personas que tienen que enfrentarse al peligro est\u00e1n mejor\u201d.
Schallhorn pioneered and currently directs the Navy Refractive Surgery Program and continues to free patients from the burdens associated with poor eyesight at no cost. Active duty from all branches and Coast Guard are eligible. Once a candidate is approved for the surgery by their eye doctor, the individual’s commanding officer submits a request to the program and designates a priority. The applicant’s need and job duties determine whether the wait time is weeks or years.
The program has treated 100,000 servicemembers to date, while Navy facilities perform roughly 15,000 procedures annually. The number keeps rising as the benefits eclipse the risks and the technology improves.
\u201cA medida que tratamos a m\u00e1s y m\u00e1s personas, m\u00e1s y m\u00e1s personas lo quieren\u201d, dijo Schallhorn. \u201cLa flota, la l\u00ednea, las fuerzas operativas han llegado a apreciar lo que puede hacer por ellos\u201d.
Maj. Michael Rohlfs underwent PRK at the Naval Training Center’s Primary Care Center in Point Loma during April of 2005 after returning from a five-month stint in Iraq. Rohlfs, a Marine stationed out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, took advantage of a clinical trial two weeks after his first inquiry. He no longer wears glasses and looks forward to the luxury his new eyesight will afford during his second tour of duty in Iraq this coming August.
\u201cHa marcado una diferencia en esta parte de mi vida, pero especialmente cuando vengo aqu\u00ed al campo\u201d, dijo Rohlfs mientras entrenaba en Yuma, Arizona. \u201cEs mucho m\u00e1s f\u00e1cil aqu\u00ed no preocuparme por perder el tiempo con anteojos\u201d.
The actual application of the laser to the eye lasts between 10 seconds and one minute, depending on the patient’s vision. The time consuming work is prepping each patient beforehand. Side effects range from minor eye irritation, such as dry eyes to serious visual impairment.
Recovery time varies with the type of surgery from days to months. Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) is a surface procedure that requires true convalescence afterwards and a longer visual recovery than Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) eye surgery. Rohlfs was unable to drive and had difficulty with bright lights for five days following his procedure.
A principios de la d\u00e9cada de 1990, el jefe de las fuerzas especiales de la Marina cataliz\u00f3 el programa y asegur\u00f3 la financiaci\u00f3n despu\u00e9s de identificar los problemas con los contactos experimentados por los SEAL (Sea, Air, Land), una unidad m\u00f3vil altamente calificada entrenada para operar estrat\u00e9gica y t\u00e1cticamente.
In 1993, the Naval Medical Center San Diego stepped forward as the first facility to offer clinical trials evaluating the safety of refractive surgery among military members. Letters and calls poured in to Schallhorn detailing the difficulty of performing military duties while wearing glasses or contacts. At that time, the procedure was not commercially practiced, as the lasers used had yet to receive Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Following the FDA’s endorsement of two excimer lasers in October of 1995, the military program expanded and patients were able to receive the surgery without having to participate in a study.
The Navy’s initiative caught on, and the Army and Air Force started their own programs. There are now more than 20 military laser vision correction centers nationwide, seven of which are Navy. The San Diego facility accepts patients from as far as El Centro and Yuma in addition to servicing greater San Diego County. Recently, a clinic opened at Camp Pendleton for Marines, shortening the wait time for San Diegans.
Schallhorn argumenta que hay m\u00e1s que ganar con la cirug\u00eda refractiva que mejorar la vista.
“Enhanced quality of life and morale, while secondary “\u00a6 shouldn’t be overlooked in the overall context of the benefit we provide,” he said.
For more information, contact the Naval Medical Center San Diego by visiting www.nmcsd.med.navy.mil or calling (619) 532-6400.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Diego’s large military community will continue to benefit from a growing Department of Defense-funded program that provides free refractive surgery to medically eligible active duty servicemen and women.While most near- or farsighted individuals struggle with contacts in front of the bathroom mirror, military personnel deployed to Iraq often battle 120-degree temperatures, gusting winds, sandstorms […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Military offers free surgery","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}