Bladeless LASIK / IntraLase

What is it?

LASIK surgery, in the conventional sense, uses a blade to cut a flap on the cornea. This places a lot of restrictions for certain cases of eye conditions, especially for patients with thin cornea. In such cases, the doctor will recommend Bladeless Lasik.

Bladeless LASIK, also known as IntraLase or all-laser LASIK, is recommended for patients with thin corneas due to its unbelievable precision and accuracy. The bladeless LASIK is possible to create thin corneal flaps, which is crucial in performing surgery for such patients.

How does it work?

In Bladeless Lasik, the new WaveLight FS2000 Femtosecond Laser is used instead of the blade for all-laser LASIK surgery. With the help of a computer designed for the Femtosecond laser, surgeons can create a thin flap in the patient’s cornea. The laser also operates at an exceptionally high speed that allows tissue to be targeted and divided at the molecular level.

Another advantage of a Femtosecond laser is that the surrounding tissues are not impacted during the surgery due to its unbelievable accuracy, unlike the conventional methods that use a microkeratome blade to create the corneal flap. The flap structure created by the Femtosecond laser has a very low chance of cells growing underneath. In conventional LASIK, pushing the flap can cause an irregular cornea surface that can lead to vision defects which is a side effect to these traditional LASIK surgeries.

Like any other LASIK surgery, bladeless LASIK surgery may have side effects but they are comparatively very low and less severe. One such recorded side effect is light sensitivity; it is a temporary side effect and resolves soon. Dry eye is also recorded as a side effect but the chances are very low and very few enhancements are required with bladeless LASIK.

Procedure

There are four steps involved in the surgery:

• Creating the Flap: The Femtosecond laser is used to create a flap on the cornea. The thickness and formation are precise and accurate due to the computer-assisted technology used for the surgery.
• Folding the flap back: The corneal flap created is gently folded back to allow the laser to reshape the cornea.
• Applying the laser: Once the cornea is folded, the laser is used to reshape the cornea to correct the refractive error and also this helps in eliminating any wounds to speed up the healing process.
• Flap return: The flap is folded back into the cornea once the treatment with surgery is done. After which the eye is irrigated and remove any bubbles or wrinkles under the flap.

Benefits of Bladeless LASIK

• All suitable prescriptions can now be treated without much hassle.
• More patients can achieve 20:20 vision or better
• Recovery rates are excellent
• The corneal flap is structured for each individual based on the patient’s eye.
• Greatly improves precision and visual results of LASIK.
• Patients, with thin, flat or steep corneas, who are usually not suitable candidates for conventional LASIK surgeries can even be treated using microkeratome.
• Human error mechanical breakdown is reduced drastically.
• Long term and short-term safety are improved.
• Bladeless LASIK surgery reduces complications even further than its conventional techniques.

Authored By Dr. Lalit Kumar