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Subconjunctival bubbles formed during femtosecond LASIK flap creation
J Refract Surg. 2008;24(8):850-851.
Subconjunctival bubbles appeared during and after LASIK flap creation with a femtosecond laser in a recent case report.
Researchers described the case of a 19-year-old man with compound myopic astigmatism and a normal preoperative evaluation who underwent simultaneous bilateral LASIK. The patient developed subconjunctival bubble formation during creation of the flap using the IntraLase FS 15 femtosecond laser (Advanced Medical Optics).
The surgeon created an 8.8-mm diameter superior flap with the laser set at 110-µm depth, 1.70-mJ bed and side-cut energy, 12-µm spot separation, 10-µm line separation, 70° side-cut angle, 240-µm pocket start width and 200-µm pocket start depth.
“The procedure was uneventful in the right eye, whereas subconjunctival air bubbles were observed along the corneal limbus in the left eye,” the study authors said. “No bubbles were seen in the peripheral cornea.”
Subconjunctival bubbles persisted 30 minutes after surgery. However, the bubbles had disappeared the next day; the patient’s uncorrected visual acuity was 20/20 in both eyes.