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Modified bitoric ablation technique offers better safety, VA, surgeon says
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COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil — A modified bitoric ablation technique offers improved safety and visual outcomes for the treatment of mixed astigmatism, according to a presentation here.
Rodrigo Donoso, MD, discussed results with his modification of the bitoric ablation technique developed by Arturo Chayet, MD, here at the Brazilian Congress on Cataract and Refractive Surgery.
“The Chayet technique itself falls slightly short and can be improved in several aspects,” Dr. Donoso said. The technique corrects myopic astigmatism and compound astigmatism by combining a positive cylinder correction in one refractive axis with a negative correction in a different axis. According to Dr. Donoso, both the standard Chayet technique and his modified version reduce the overall amount of tissue ablated during surgery.
In Dr. Donoso’s modified technique, he adds 50% to the positive cylinder, which reduces even further the depth of the ablation and provides a larger optical zone, he said. Dr. Donoso said the modified technique results in a better ablation profile and better quality of vision for the patient by diminishing the hyperopic coupling.
Dr. Donoso evaluated the technique in the treatment of cylinder with LASIK in mixed astigmatism.
“The best strategy is to use a greater magnitude of positive cylinder to reduce the tissue ablation,” he said. “The modified Chayet technique is better and safer than the classic Chayet technique.”
He said the correction and safety results were better than those obtained with the unmodified Chayet technique. Dr. Donoso said he has not needed to perform any re-operations.
“These results still have to be confirmed by contrast sensitivity,” he added.