IntraLase

LASIK Surgery with the Advanced Precision of IntraLase

We know the decision to have LASIK eye surgery is a big one, so we take great care to determine what’s best for you as our patient. That’s why we offer IntraLase as step one in your LASIK treatment.

With IntraLase, a beam of laser light is used to create your corneal flap, which is then lifted so the second step of LASIK-the reshaping of your cornea-can be performed. When your LASIK treatment is over, the flap is securely repositioned into place. This bladeless, computer-guided technology is 100 percent more accurate than most of the mechanical microkeratomes (hand-held device with a thin metal blade) that surgeons may also use to create a corneal flap.

Because of the superior accuracy of IntraLase, certain patients who were ineligible for LASIK may now be able to have treatment. Ask your doctor today if you are a candidate.

What is the IntraLase Method?

The IntraLase Method is a 100% blade-free approach to creating your corneal flap, the thin flap of tissue that the doctor folds back in order to perform your LASIK eye surgery procedure. Traditionally, doctors have used an instrument called a microkeratome for the creation of corneal flaps. The microkeratome is a hand-held blade that moves across the eye, cutting the corneal flap as it goes. While LASIK is extremely safe, if complications do occur the microkeratome is most often the cause. The IntraLase Method, by contrast, enables your doctor to create your corneal flap without a blade ever touching your eye.

How Intralase Works

With the IntraLase Method, tiny pulses of laser light, a quadrillionth of a second each, pass harmlessly through the outer portion of your cornea and form a uniform layer of microscopic bubbles just beneath the surface of your eye.

The exact dimensions of this layer of bubbles are determined by your doctor based on what’s best for your eye, and are computer controlled for maximum precision—things that are not possible with a hand-held blade. The IntraLase® flap creation process takes about 30 seconds.

When it’s time for your LASIK treatment to be performed, your doctor easily separates the tissue where these bubbles occur and then folds it back, thus creating your corneal flap.

When LASIK is complete, a flap created using the IntraLase Method is uniquely able to “lock” back into place. Your eye then begins to rapidly heal.

Unlike mechanical instruments, IntraLase technology is uniquely able to program the dimensions of your flap based on what's best for your eye. Then the IntraLase laser creates your flap from below the surface of the cornea-without ever cutting it. How?

1. IntraLase uses ultra fast pulses of laser light to position microscopic bubbles at a precise depth determined by your doctor.

2. The laser light passes harmlessly through your cornea. Then the laser creating rows of these bubbles just beneath your corneal surface as it moves back and forth across your eye in a uniform plane.

3. Next, the IntraLase laser stacks bubbles around your corneal diameter to create the edges of your flap. These bubbles are stacked at an angle that is determined by your doctor and is individualized to the way your eye is shaped.

4. The process takes only about 30 seconds from start to finish-it's quiet and it's comfortable.

5. Your doctor then gently lifts the flap to allow for the second step of your LASIK treatment. When treatment is complete, the flap easily "locks" back into position and rapidly begins to heal.

 

IntraLase Assurance and Comfort

IntraLase has been used successfully on hundreds of thousands of eyes and we trust this advanced technology to deliver exceptional results. Our commitment is to provide you with the ultimate in comfort, safety, and outstanding vision. LASIK eye surgery with IntraLase can help you achieve all of this- while it delivers the added assurance of knowing you're being treated with the most advanced technology there is.

 

Lasik performed with IntraLase is Preferred by patients:

In a survey of clinical practices, the vision in the IntraLase-treated eye was preferred up to 3 to 1 by patients over the vision in the mechanical blade-treated eye (among those who stated a preference).**

Lasik performed with IntraLase delivers superior visual results:

In a clinical study comparing the IntraLase laser to the leading microkeratome, more patients achieved 20/20 vision or better in standard and custom LASIK eye surgery when IntraLase was used to create the corneal flap.***

Is it right for me?

If you’re looking for blade-free treatment that virtually eliminates the most severe sight-threatening complications, the answer is yes.

The IntraLase Method also delivers outstanding visual results: more patients achieve vision that is 20/20 or better when the IntraLase Method is used.1 And patients report better quality of vision overall, particularly in terms of their ability to see well in low light, such as at dusk or at night.

What else should I know ?

Preferred by patients. In a clinical survey of LASIK patients who had their corneal flaps created using a blade in one eye and the IntraLase Method in the other, the vision in the IntraLase-treated eye was preferred 3-to-1 (among those who stated a preference)

Proven and trusted. Hundreds of thousands of lasik eye procedures have been performed safely and effectively using the IntraLase Method.

The most advanced treatment there is. Advanced IntraLase technology gives your doctor the highest degree of surgical control for the most effective procedure you can have. Ultimately, the 100% blade-free IntraLase Method gives patients more confidence endless anxiety going in for LASIK treatment, and excellent vision coming out.

 

** Daniel S Durrie, M.D.: Randomized prospective clinical study of LASIK: IntraLase versus mechanical keratome. Subsets presented at the Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology & the International Society of Refractive Surgery, November 14, 2003, Anaheim, CA, the Symposium of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, May 4, 2004, San Diego, CA, the International Refractive Surgery: Science and Practice, October 23, 2004, New Orleans, LA, and the Symposium of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, April 18, 2005, Washington, DC.

*** Durrie, DS, MD, Kezirian GM, MD. Femtosecond laser versus mechanical keratome flaps in wavefront-guided laser in situ keratomileusis: Prospective contralateral eye study. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2005;31:120-126.