Radial keratotomy, moreover, may weaken the wall of the eye.

"People are usually quite happy with the outcomes, unlike older surgeries like radial keratotomy."

The new surgery should give better results than radial keratotomy and should be safer, the experts said.

But researchers warned that the surgery, known as radial keratotomy, has had unpredicatble results.

Radial keratotomy can be done in about half an hour in a doctor's office under local anesthesia.

For similar reasons, radial keratotomy has also generally not been used for keratoconic patients.

Radial keratotomy was developed in 1974 by a Russian eye surgeon and introduced in this country four years later.

Pseudomonas is also a common cause of postoperative infection in radial keratotomy surgery patients.

But there is necessarily imprecision in radial keratotomy.

A second use is for laser radial keratotomy(?)

Method of radial keratotomy employing a vibrating cutting blade (1995)

Radial keratotomy is considered safe.

Improvement of visual function with glare testing after photorefractive keratectomy and radial keratotomy.

Very high-frequency digital ultrasound evaluation of topography-wavefront-guided repair after radial keratotomy.

For less severe cases of short sight, laser surgery and radial keratotomy, when the cornea is cut, can be used to correct the defect.

What is radial keratotomy?

High frequency ultrasound evaluation of radial keratotomy incisions.

The new laser technique is a potential replacement for radial keratotomy, said Dr. Puliafito.

Radial keratotomy is an elective procedure that is done to correct nearsightedness in otherwise healthy eyes.

Radial keratotomy was developed by doctors in Japan and the Soviet Union and has been performed on more than 100,000 Americans.

About 5 percent of ophthalmologists perform a surgical technique for nearsightedness called radial keratotomy, Dr. Stark estimated.

Radial keratotomy is a procedure in which spoke-like slits are cut into the surface of the cornea, the clear, curved covering of the eye.

Svyatoslav Fyodorov (creator of radial keratotomy)

The researchers concluded that visual acuity achieved through radial keratotomy was unacceptably unpredictable, "especially when compared with the fitting of spectacles or contact lenses."

But some of it, they said, appeared to be attributable to the radial keratotomy procedure, which seemed to cause the change in some people at an earlier age.