Femtosecond laser versus mechanical keratome flaps in wavefront-guided laser in situ keratomileusis

Abstract

The statistically better UCVA and manifest refractive outcomes after LASIK with the IntraLase femtosecond laser may be the result of differences in postoperative astigmatism and trefoil. These findings are consistent with previous findings of better astigmatic outcomes with the IntraLase laser and may have clinical significance for wavefront-guided treatments.

Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Astigmatism Correction

“…Their results showed that the simple act of flap creation can change lower and higher-order aberrations and that there was a significant increase in higher-order aberrations seen in the microkeratome eyes but not in the femtosecond laser eyes (Tran et al, 2005). Additionally, in another prospective, contralateral eye study comparing the femtosecond laser and a blade microkeratome, the uncorrected visual acuity and manifest refractive outcomes were better in the femtosecond laser eyes (Durrie and Kezirian, 2005). Of note, the IntraLase Corporation supported the above three studies either directly or through providing financial compensation to the study's authors.…”

The future role of wavefront-guided excimer ablation

“…Femtosecond lasers were thought to offer an increase in safety and predictability of flap creation. First studies found also a lower induction of low-order aberrations and HOA compared to traditional mechanical flap creation [11,18,52]. However, clinical benefits have not been demonstrated.…”

Comparison of different excimer laser ablation frequencies (50, 200, and 500 Hz)

“…With the smaller spot sizes, surgeons could apply more complex ablation profiles. Also, with small beam diameters, wavefrontguided ablation profiles were used to improve the postoperative outcomes [6][7][8]. With topography-guided ablation profiles, irregular astigmatism or decentered ablations could be corrected [9,10].…”