LASIK Up-to-date Newsletter

Femto-LASIK (Laser-LASIK): What is it? What are the advantages?

With the Femto-LASIK, also called Laser-LASIK or Intralase-LASIK, only lasers are used. Therefore, the new procedure eliminates the use of any mechanical instruments (microkeratome), which up to now were needed to cut the corneal flap.

Rare complications resulting from the standard LASIK procedure could almost always be traced to the preparation of the corneal flap. It was therefore obvious to further develop the procedure, and to optimize the preparation of the corneal flap.

The femto second laser that is used in place of the microkeratome for the corneal cut, sends ultra-short light pulses with several 100 femto-seconds (1 fs=a millionth of a billionth second). By accurately focusing the laser beam, very high energy densities can temporarily be achieved in the interior of the cornea. The effect of the photo disruption only occurs in the focal point, i.e. the tissue is severed. Outside the defined area, the tissue remains intact. A complete cut in a predefined level is achieved by sequencing thousands of these laser pulses next to each other.

The femto second laser is only used to prepare the corneal flap. For the actual reshaping of the cornea that corrects the visual disorder the Excimer laser is still being used.

Initial study results seem to indicate that by using the femto second laser, the thickness of the LASIK flap can be defined even better than with the conventional microkeratome.

In USA, more than 10,000 procedures have been performed with this new technology. The femto scond laser is currently being introduced in Europe.

FreeVis is offering the All-Laser-LASIK at the FreeVis centers in Fürth, Lohr a. Main, Mannheim, Munich, Basel, Bern and Zurich.


To learn more about the Femto-LASIK, follow one of the links below:

- What is Femto-LASIK, how does it work?
- The Femto-LASIK FAQ