Letters
Elective procedures for normal conditions need high standards
EDITOR,--In his review of the treatment of myopia David S Gartry refers to the "inconvenience" of this condition.1 Refractive myopia is a normal state resulting from the biological variation of several factors in what in most cases are normal tissues. It can convey many benefits, particularly in respect of the effects of presbyopia. Its "treatment" by methods that destroy normal tissues is akin to the approach of Proscrustes, the legendary Greek brigand, whose bed was offered to weary travellers but always proved to be either too long or too short, reflecting the similarly normal variation in height of ancient Greek travellers. Sir Frederick Treves, Edward VII's surgeon, enunciated the dictum that "all surgery is amputatory." The aphorism remains as relevant as ever.
An elective procedure on normal structures that results in 15% of subjects being dissatisfied with the outcome and a smaller percentage incurring important and even disabling consequences is
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Fortnightly Review: Treating myopia with the excimer laser: the present position
- David S Gartry
BMJ 1995 310: 979-985.[Abstract] [Full Text]
This Article
- Full text
- Respond to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when responses are posted
- Alert me when a correction is posted
Services
- Email this article to a friend
- Find similar articles in BMJ
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Related Content
Bookmark with
What's new
Latest blogs
Find BMJ on:
Services
Tools
Online poll
Resources
Rapid responses for this article
There are no rapid responses for this article. Print issues
