The laser system LaserSoft is intended for the use in the ophthalmic surgery, specifically for corneal refractive correction and ablation of the corneal surface. It can be used for Photo-Refractive Keratectomy (PRK) and related treatments such as LASEK, EpiLASIK, as well as for Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK).
The human eye works like a camera. But unlike a camera the combined effect of cornea (80% refractive power) and lens (20% refractive power) projects an image onto the retina, which acts like a film or an image sensor. The iris regulates the amount of light entering the eye. In a normal functioning (emmetropic) eye the entering light produces a sharp image on the retina.
Possible refractive disorders like near-sightedness (myopia), astigmatism or far-sightedness (hyperopia) occur if the sharp image would be in front of or behind the retina. These disorders can be corrected by glasses, contact lenses, Intra Ocular Lenses (IOLs) or since recent times by a laser for vision correction
Laser Vision Correction (LVC) is an alternative to the conservative methods of correction of refractive errors mentioned above which eliminates or reduces the need for eyeglasses or contact lenses. The idea is to reshape the surface of the cornea by removing tiny portions of tissue, in order to change the refractive power of the eye.
Besides refractive errors which can be corrected with spherical and cylindrical lenses as been done with current techniques, there are other, more irregular disorders. These disorders are called higher order aberrations. Treating those in order to achieve even better quality of vision is the goal of Customized Laser Vision Correction (CLVC) that is now becoming the key driver of the market and is for further growth. CLVC takes into account the individual irregularities (aberrations) of the whole optical imaging system of a patient’s eye using a so-called Wavefront aberrometer.
The laser system LaserSoft is intended to the following LVC applications: