Surgeons eye new procedure

First there was LASIK, the laser technology that has been helping people see without glasses or contact lenses for almost 10 years.

Now comes CK. It's not Calvin Klein, but it is the latest trend in the science of correcting vision; and this one's being marketed squarely at the aging baby boomer generation that is discovering that good eyesight, unlike a diamond, is not forever.

"We live in a youth culture," said Dr. Steven Sicher, an ophthalmologist with the Illinois Eye Center who performs the just-approved procedure. "And not only are we outliving the life expectancy of our eyes but we want to remain active. We still want to fly that plane and drive that car and keep moving as we grow older."

With more than 1 million operations performed, LASIK laser surgery is now the second most common eye surgery in the United States, behind cataract surgery. The procedure, which corrects both nearsightedness and farsightedness, uses lasers to reshape a patient's cornea. Now, there's another option.

CK, short for conductive keratoplasty, is a procedure that also reshapes the cornea, but instead of a laser uses heat generated by radio frequency energy. It is used primarily on people who are farsighted -- those who have difficulty focusing on things that are close up. Those symptoms include difficulty reading menus, a computer screen and seeing to drive at night, or the need to constantly reposition reading material to find the right focus. Some also experience eye fatigue at the end of the day or when reading in poor lighting.

After years of testing and clinical trials, the CK procedure was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for patients 40 and older

Cathy Stukins, 46, of Peoria, Ill., attended the first seminar and was one of the first people in the city to have the CK operation.

"I was thrilled by the results," she said. "Just thrilled."