Ray tracing approach to LASIK offers another way to manage surging myopia cases

ByAnthony DeFino

Fact checked byChristine Klimanskis, ELS

TAMPA, Fla. — A ray tracing approach to LASIK is showing promise in mitigating the ongoing increase in worldwide myopia cases, according to a presentation at the Telling It Like It Is meeting.

Brett Mueller, DO, PhD, said that utilizing ray tracing profiles through artificial intelligence is the next step in improving patient outcomes through LASIK, as it uses a combination of wavefront maps, biometry and tomography to offer a more thorough correction technique for the entire eye.

Eye surgeon — A ray tracing approach to LASIK is showing promise in mitigating the ongoing increase in worldwide myopia cases, according to a presentation at the Telling It Like It Is meeting.
*Image: Adobe Stock*

“We can create a true avatar system of the eye, so we can then create ablation profiles that will then be able to fully correct the full eye system and the full eye model,” Mueller said.

The approach will allow for more opportunities to halt myopia progression, which is becoming a “really big problem.”

According to Mueller, a study by Holden and colleagues showed that myopia is projected to affect half the world’s population by 2050, with high myopia affecting 1 billion people worldwide and 260 million in the U.S. and Canada, which is a “five times increase in high myopia.”

The key solution to mitigating this epidemic, he said, is LASIK and its current advancements.

“The results are incredible in terms of what they are seeing over in Europe, and hopefully we will be able to see this in the United States in the next 4 to 5 years,” Mueller said of the ray tracing AI technology. “LASIK is more than a procedure but is the entire brand of refractive surgery. When LASIK is doing well, all the other procedures are doing well. When LASIK is not doing well, all the other procedures are not going to be able to do well. So as we start comparing one procedure to the next, I think it is important to respect the fact that LASIK does represent the entire brand of refractive surgery.”

Reference:

Holden BA, et al. Ophthalmology. 2016;doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2016.01.006.

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Sources/Disclosures

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Source:

Mueller B. LASIK’s staying power: New trends and advances. Presented at: Telling It Like It Is 2023; Feb. 15-19, 2023; Tampa, Florida.

Disclosures: Mueller reports having financial disclosures for AbbVie, Alcon, ArcScan, Glaukos, Refractive Surgery Alliance Fellowship Network, RxSight and Zeiss.

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Ray tracing approach to LASIK offers another way to manage surging myopia cases

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