This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Device allows ablation of underside of LASIK flap
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ROME — A new instrument allows flying-spot laser ablation with an active eye tracker to be performed on the underside of a LASIK flap, said one surgeon speaking here.
Suphi Taner, MD, described early experience with the device at the winter refractive surgery meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons.
“The instrument is just a simple flap holder with a pupil-shaped black marking in the center,” Dr. Taner said. “It is placed under the reversed flap so that the round black marking is visible in transparency. The eye-tracker of the laser centers on the mark as if it was a pupil, and the treatment can be performed on the undersurface of the flap. The flap is then repositioned on the stroma.”
The flap-undersurface laser ablation can be used for LASIK re-treatment as well. This might be an effective way of avoiding the risk of keratectasia, Dr. Taner said, because re-ablation performed on the stromal bed has been reported to lead to ectasia.
Dr. Taner reported “good results” with the device used in conjunction with a Bausch & Lomb Technolas laser.