Can patients be treated with laser vision correction if theyve had Herpes Simplex Keratitis?
• Dr. Herbert Kaufman has performed the Herpetic Eye Disease Study associated with testing, cultures and treatments. He found 1. oral medications have nothing to offer us for treating stromal disease and iritis, 2. oral medicines did not effect the incidents of stromal disease in patients with herpes epithelial disease, 3. oral medicines did prevent recurrence of herpes in only 1/2 of the patients with recurrent stromal disease. Secondly, he found that steroids benefited acute disease of the stromal cornea and that there was no damage caused by them. The study also determined that true bilateral herpes keratitis is very rare but can occur. He uses Viroptic for epithelial disease and has a new hope, Ganciclovir, which inhibits viral DNA synthesis for use in the future as it comes in from Europe. Dr. Kaufman feels that patients that have had Herpes are good candidates for refractive surgery in which he performs LASIK. If a patient has active disease, he starts Viroptics a couple days bef
