lifter123

Hi, Does anyone have any good links to CURRENT and UP TO DATE information regarding refractive surgeries that are currently allowed by each of the military branches? Also, a position statement or advisory circular from the FAA regarding the issue.

Most websites I have seen are not all that up to date, recruiters tend to not help that much, and sorting through the info. can be somewhat confusing.

Thanks much.

rickair7777

For the military: There is no such definitive source from the government. The military branches are separate organizations, and are rarely consistent with one another. To complicate matters, things change on a regular basis. You really do need to get the info from the branch in question. I know recruiters suck, but what you might do is attempt to get hold of an active flight surgeon in the branches you are interested in. They should be familiar with the latest rules. Make SURE that you get the standards for a CANDIDATE, not a current pilot, they will probably be stricter for a candidate.

I have a couple of friends who are navy doctors, I'll see if I can get the current info for Navy/USMC, but it will take a few days.

For the FAA: They do not publish advisory circulars for most medical topics. Well they do, but distribution is limited to AME's. They do want want medical certification knowledge readily available to us, they want us to ask our AME's.

If you are thinking about getting vision surgery, talk to your AME and see if he can give you something in writing. To the best of my knowledge, the FAA is very lenient...they will accept PRK or LASIK as long as you can see 20/20 afterwards with or without glasses, have no complications, and have completed the post-surgery waiting period. The waiting period used to be 6 months, but I think they lowered that recently.

There are some risks with refractive surgery...

Best Corrected Visual Acuity: This is the best you can see, with correction (or without, if you don't need any. My BCVA is about 20/15, but I need glasses to get to that point. BCVA is a function of genetics, and the condition of your cornea, eyeball, and retina. For FAA medical purposes this must be 20/20 or better. Glasses or refractive surgery are designed to corrected refractive error, ie the shape of the lens, not the condition of the lens, eyeball , or retina.

One of the risks of refractive surgery is slight scarring of the cornea...this can commonly reduce your BCVA by one line on the eye chart or even more if complications arise.

If I got surgery, I would expect to be able to see 20/20 or even 20/17 without glasses...however I would probably lose that 20/15 BCVA. That would be OK, because I only need 20/20 BCVA.

However if your BCVA was 20/20 or 20/17 to start with, you do not have much room for error. If you end up with BCVA of slightly worse than 20/20 in one or both eyes, then you cannot meet FAA standards for a 1st/2nd class medical without a waiver. Oops.

Personally I am very reluctant to consider refractive surgery as a civilian pilot. If you already meet the standards, why risk screwing that up. If you want it strictly for convenience, these are things to consider...

- Experience of the surgeon. Pay top dollar for someone who has done thousands of them. Do not go to the guy in the strip who does them at a discount. Be sure your surgeon is a board-trained ophthalmologist, not a GP or some random specialty who attended a weekend seminar on LASIK.

- Your medical suitability. A good surgeon should do a thorough review and tell why or why not you are medically suitable for the procedure. Since my career would be on the line, I would probably get a second opinion from an objective doctor. Some factors he should consider are the size of your eyeball, the size of your cornea, and any history of eye infections or irritation.

I would be more inclined to consider surgery for a career objective, such as a military pilot slot.

Traditional surgery procedures correct the refractive error by shaping the cornea to a mathematically correct lens shape. This does nothing to correct for retinal problems or cornea damage. However...light must also pass through the inside of the eyeball, which is gell like substance and is not pefectly consistent...this introduces additional light path errors. There is a new LASIK procedure, which maps the refractive errors of the lens AND the errors inside the eyeball. It then shapes a perfect lens surface, but superimposes corrections on top of that to account for the light path errors inside the eyeball. This has the potential to actually improve your BCVA, since it reduces internal eyeball errors. As a civilian, this is what I would look into. I think the military is now open to LASIK, but you obviously need to confirm that.

Many folks have had great success with surgery but there is some risk. I know one guy whose corneas were so badly scarred that he lost his medical for good. Corneal transplants were the only option, but he worked for mesa...obviously their insurance does not cover stuff like that.

lifter123

Thanks Rick,

I am definitely aware that eye surgery is a big risk, especially for the civilian side. My vision is corrected to 20/20, but my right eye is uncorrected 20/60, which disqualifies me from military pilot slots. The two branches I am looking at are the Marines and Coast Guard. I'm taking this process very slow to make sure I make the right steps and choices. I have taken a strong interest to military flying and serving my country, it's just this process if so complicated and CONFUSING.

I have some other medical history that I am not sure yet if it will clear. I am going to go to MEPS first and see if I can get that through them. If I can't, then I'll just stay civilian and be thankful that the FAA gave me a medical.

thanks much

crewdawg

Not true. The Air Force is 20/70 uncorrected as long as it's correctable to 20/20. When I went through brooks about 3 years ago they were giving waivers up to 20/200. FYI, I was 20/70 in both eyes and didn't require a waiver.

As far as eye surgery, the AF allows PRK and I think Lasik has been recently approved. Whatever you do, consult a military flight doc and get the latest information. There is a whole stack of forms that need to be filled out prior to the surgery as well as after.

Goodluck

Roper92

lifter,

Try this website:
Baseops Forums (Powered by Invision Power Board)
Look under Aviation Medecine and you will find tons of information and past experiences. There is a flight doc that answers questions on there as well. I believe it is AIR FORCE specific and I saw that you were interested in the Marines or Coast Guard so I'm not sure if it will help or not.

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Coast Guard uses the Navy medical standards. Hopefully that will help during your research.

Good luck!