A laser surgery to give people better vision

Experts estimate the human eye is potentially capable of 20-10 vision.

But, the new treatment can give people up to 20-16 vision, thus enabling them to read a car number plate 80 yards away, almost four times better than the minimum standard required for driving, say the surgeons.

In fact, the treatment is due to new cool laser that precisely cuts a flap in the cornea at the start. And a second laser then reshapes the cornea to correct short sight, say the surgeons involved in the project.

Lead surgeon David Allamby, a former Moorfields Eye Hospital surgeon who is using the new "bionic" technology, was quoted by the `Sunday Express` as saying, "The results being achieved with these new machines are simply amazing.

"People talk about 20-20 vision being the most perfect vision that anyone can have but now we`ve broken through that barrier."

One of the first patients to be treated with the new lasers was TV presenter Denise Van Outen who now has 20-16 vision. It means from a distance of 20ft, she can see detail that a person with normal vision could not see until they were 16ft from it.

Allamby, who now works for London-based Focus Clinics, said: "She was absolutely bowled over by the results that we achieved."

The surgeons carried out a year-long trial of 307 patients and has achieved 20-14 or even 20-12 vision in 47 per cent of cases.