New Device Corrects Centering of LASIK Vision Treatments

MCHENRY, Ill. -- LASIK laser vision correction has become a popular and successful outpatient procedure that has freed millions of people from the need for glasses. Based on a new development, the safety of the LASIK procedure will increase. There is one moment in the laser vision correction treatment where the doctor asks the patient to look at a fixation light. The doctor has to hope that the patient is really looking right at the fixation light. With the most advanced lasers today, a digital image of the patient's eye is created at the beginning of the treatment and the laser system then tracks eye movements and adjusts the laser treatment accordingly.

The problem is that during the beginning of the treatment if the patient was looking slightly off the fixation target or if the doctor did not correctly center the laser treatment, then the patient's vision will be less than perfect due to the laser treatment being off-center. In some cases visual loss can be significant.

This week, patent 6,951,556 was issued to Robert L. Epstein, MD, director of 800-I-CAN-SEE, the Mercy Center for Corrective Eye Surgery in McHenry, Ill. Epstein is a LASIK surgeon specializing in treatments that produce freedom from the need for bifocals and trifocals. The new patent provides a working means to correct those off-center laser ablations from LASIK should they occur. In the future, the correction of off-center laser ablations can be incorporated into the newer laser vision correction machines.

Source: Robert L. Epstein, MD