Economy takes toll on Lasik eye surgeries

At LCA-Vision Inc., which operates 77 LasikPlus vision correction centers in 33 states, the number of procedures is down by half from a year ago, and the company has slashed advertising, cut staff and suspended dividends.

"It's 99 percent the economy," said analyst Peter Bye, who follows the industry for Jefferies & Co. in New York.

"It's very substitutable," he said of Lasik. "Take the typical customer, a 30-year-old or 35-year-old who has been wearing contacts for 15 years. If money's tight, he says 'I'll do it next year.'"

The Food and Drug Administration heard testimony in April from patients who said they experienced dryness, severe eye pain or blurred vision following Lasik surgery. But Bye didn't think those hearings affected the industry much.

"In the spring, we heard a little bit of a blip, but it didn't escalate," he said.

Lasik was one of the optional expenses that people started to forgo about a year ago, Bye said. And like vision correction, other cosmetic procedures such as botox injections and breast implants have fallen off.

Those industries will revive when the economy rebounds, he predicted, but vision correction "is probably not the first discretionary item that comes back."

"Usually the first to go is last to come back," he said.

Although surgeries at LCA-Vision centers have declined more than the industry overall, the company's balance sheet is sound and the company should be able to wait out the downturn, Bye said.