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Speaker describes new device for measuring corneal biomechanical strength
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BOSTON — Avedro is developing a new initiative, Brillouin spectroscopy, which would enable surgeons to create a 3-D strength map of the cornea, a speaker here said.
“What we want this for is treatment planning for corneal collagen cross-linking,” David Muller, PhD, president and CEO of Avedro, told attendees at the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit. “It’s built to take information from other mapping systems, combine them and filter them through a computational engine to pump out a map that a surgeon can use to assess an eye’s corneal biomechanical strength.”
Muller said prototypes should be ready later this year.
David Muller
Part of the reason for the development of the Brillouin spectroscopy device is to aid in what Muller called “the next big opportunity” in cross-linking for Avedro, photorefractive intrastromal corneal cross-linking, which corrects refractive error through the application of customizable UV treatment patterns.
“What this is really based on is our ability to cross-link in certain areas of the cornea in order to manipulate the shape of the cornea,” he said. “What we’re talking about with this is a non-contact, non-surgical way to correct myopia, as well as residual refractive error after cataract surgery.”
After the presentation, section moderator Stephen Slade, MD, asked Muller, because Avedro is the company closest to securing U.S. regulatory approval for a cross-linking procedure, when he thought cross-linking procedures might be able to be performed by U.S. surgeons. Muller estimated 12 months.
Disclosure: Muller is president and CEO of Avedro.