Dr. Duplessie organized the first US LASIK course, featuring the world’s top 25 corneal refractive surgeons in a series of 63 lectures and talks over two days.

Showing a boldness that can be career defining or career ruining, Dr. Duplessie decided that the laser surgery classification system decided on by the world’s twenty four best corneal surgeons and his personal hero, Prof. Jose Ignacio Barraquer, [the father of modern corneal refractive surgery], was unworkable and needed to be simplified.

Anatomically and surgically informative, but completely unpronounceable.

Choosing to ‘ask forgiveness later’, he simplified the classification system to LASIK and PRK.

In the “First United States LASIK Course”, the name LASIK was still controversial, and none of speakers used it in the titles any of the 63 lectures and talks. After the course, there was only LASIK and PRK.

And that is how the ‘Father of Modern Corneal Refractive Surgery ‘, Dr. Barraquer came to write the introductory chapter in Dr. Duplessie’s book ‘Advances in Refractive Surgery and Corneal Surgery’ published just months after the course.

Over 40,000,000 LASIK surgeries have been performed.

Honoring a legendary surgeon. Clinically and pathology perfect. Unfortunately a increasing series of impossible pronunciations.