Ultrafast (femtosecond) Laser Refractive Surgery

Lasers with ultrafast pulses have been developed to decrease the energy necessary to incise tissues and to decrease damage to surrounding tissues. The IntraLase femtosecond (10-15 seconds) laser has been approved by the FDA for lamellar corneal surgery. It uses an infrared (1053 nm) scanning pulse focused to 3 microm with an accuracy of 1 microm to cut a spiral pattern in the corneal stroma creating precise lamellar flaps for LASIK. Clinical studies show that the flaps are uniformly of good quality with no flap complications. The flexibility of this system allows for intrastromal corneal surgery and may make it useful for other refractive and corneal procedures.