Understanding LASIK Surgery with/without IntraLase Technology Explaining Lasik Surgery for Everyone
LASIK surgery is treating the nearsightedness and astigmatism of about 258,000 eyes a year in the United States. It is a quick outpatient surgery (under 30 minutes) but costly (about $2,500 per eye). It is a marvel of science involving almost miraculous precision.
Lasik surgery is a simple five step procedure.
The first step is preparation. In a eye examination computer is used to generate a map of the cornea1 to identify the irregularities that are causing visual distortions for the patient.
Anesthetic eye drops are applied to numb the eye for surgery, and the surgeon marks the cornea with water-soluble ink to guide replacement of the flap.
A suction ring draws the eye out of its socket slightly and holds it steady so the microkeratome, surgical instrument or knife with an oscillating blade and on a track attached to the suction ring, can slice a flap in the epithelium, the membrane covering the cornea.
This is not at all a painful procedure as you may think from above. In fact you will be awake the whole time and see it. You may feel slight discomfort but not pain.
The flap, only 160 microns thick or less than half the width of a human hair, is folded back to expose the cornea's surface.
Then a computer-guided ultraviolet laser (excimer laser) smoothes the surface of the cornea, removing the irregular "bulges" which were mapped in step 1. This process takes 20 to 30 seconds in most cases.
Finally the corneal flap is repositioned over the smoothed area. No stitches are required because of the natural bonding qualities of corneal tissue. Healing starts almost immediately.
LASIK complications are rare, most of which that occur result from improperly formed corneal flaps.
IntraLase makes LASIK surgery better by replacing your doctor’s microkeratome blade with a computer-guided laser that delivers micron-level accuracy over 100 percent greater than a microkeratome, which is itself an extremely high precision device. Intralase gives you greater assurance that Step Two of LASIK eye surgery (creating corneal flap) will be as accurate and as safe as possible.
In a related news shares of IntraLase Corp. (ILSE.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which makes lasers used in LASIK eye surgery, rose 5 percent on Wednesday after an analyst upgraded the stock on evidence of higher usage of its lasers and positive feedback from surgeons.
Wachovia Securities analyst Theodore Huber raised his investment rating on IntraLase to "outperform" from "market perform," sending shares up 90 cents to $19.60 on the Nasdaq.
"This premium-priced, patent-protected technology offers lower complication rates and better visual outcomes than microkeratomes," wrote Huber in a research note to clients.
In December, Huber forecast that IntraLase would garner more than 40 percent of the total laser vision correction market by 2008, which he estimates to be worth $707 million in 2005 and $775 million in 2006.
The company's lasers are now used in about 15 percent of U.S. LASIK surgeries, which aim to correct vision in people who are nearsighted, farsighted or astigmatic by cutting a flap in their corneas and reshaping them. Most surgeries still use microkeratomes to cut the flap.
1The cornea is the outermost layer of the eye. It is the clear, dome-shaped surface that covers the front of the eye. When you touch your eye you actually touch the cornea.
Although the cornea is clear and seems to lack substance, it is actually a highly organized group of cells and proteins. Unlike most tissues in the body, the cornea contains no blood vessels to nourish or protect it against infection. Instead, the cornea receives its nourishment from the tears and aqueous humor that fills the chamber behind it.
Filed under Eye Treatment, Lasik Eye Surgery
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