Refractive Surgery News

Legislation that would grant the Florida Board of Optometry sole authority in defining the practice of optometry and allow certified optometrists to perform certain laser and nonlaser procedures cleared the Florida Health Quality Subcommittee.

House Rep. Justin Burr filed legislation in North Carolina that would permit optometrists to provide in-office procedures that do not require general anesthesia.

ATLANTA – Preeya Gupta, MD, a cornea special session panelist here at SECO, said new and up-and-coming intraocular lenses are helping patients achieve refractive outcomes.

ATLANTA – Elizabeth Yeu, MD, a panelist for a SECO special session on cornea, said preoperative evaluation and care of the patient with astigmatism who is undergoing refractive cataract surgery is the best form of medicine.

The first ReLEx SMILE procedure in the United States was performed by Jon G. Dishler, MD, at the Dishler Laser Institute in Colorado, according to a Carl Zeiss Meditec press release.

OCT-based scanned capsule centration for femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery provided better overlap between the IOL and lens capsule than pupil centration with a three-piece IOL, according to a study.

The FDA has approved a software update for the Zeiss VisuMax femtosecond laser system for the ReLEx SMILE procedure, according to a company press release.

Recent legislation specifies that the Florida Board of Optometry would have the sole authority to determine what constitutes the practice of optometry and that a licensed optometrist may complete a board-approved course and examination to become a certified in ophthalmic surgery to perform laser and nonlaser procedures.

Thermal pulsation therapy may significantly improve dry eye symptoms and may improve objective clinical parameters of tear break-up time, meibomian gland dysfunction and corneal staining, according to researchers.

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands – At the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons winter meeting, Francesco Carones, MD, speaks about the impact of residual and induced astigmatism on the performance of multifocal IOLs.  In a study, he analyzed how different multifocal IOL models are more or less sensitive to astigmatism, suggesting a “tolerable” threshold for each of these models.