As a public service announcement, I’m passing on this invitation to participate in research for climbers who have had refractive eye surgery, such as LASIK or PRK.
Alan
Exposure to high altitude after vision correction surgery poses a risk of developing a variety of issues ranging from dry eyes, light sensitivity, and nearsightedness, to rare, severe cases of near-blindness that were a contributing factor to the loss of life. Despite these reports, little is known about exactly how common these symptoms are.
Researchers at the University of Washington, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Tubingen are conducting a research survey to estimate how commonly vision changes occur while traveling to high altitudes after vision correction surgery. People who have had vision correction surgery are eligible to participate, whether they experienced visual symptoms or not. If you are eligible and choose to participate, you will find a link to the anonymous online survey at the bottom of this email. The survey will take less than 20 minutes to complete and does not require you to provide any personal information.
Participation in this study is voluntary. You may decline to answer any question in the survey. All the information you provide in the survey will remain anonymous and no one will be able to identify you from the information you provide in the survey. Although you will not benefit directly from this survey, we anticipate that information learned from the survey will help guide medical practice for future climbers traveling to high altitudes.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at aluks@u.washington.edu, although please be reminded that the confidentiality of emails cannot be guaranteed. We appreciate your time and effort in completing this survey and look forward to reviewing the information you provide.
Click here to complete this survey: https://redcap.iths.org/surveys/?s=7L9NN7CHPH
If the link does not work, you can copy and paste it into your web browser.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO CLICK ON “SUBMIT” AT THE END OF THE SURVEY TO ENSURE THAT YOUR ANSWERS ARE ALL SAVED PROPERLY.
Sincerely,
Andrew M Luks, MD
Professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
University of Washington
Hans F Hurt, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of New Mexico
Michael A LaBarbera, MD
Department of Medicine
University of Washington
Gabriel Willmann, MD
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology
University of Tübingen
