Contact: Meredith Williams
843.216.2020
Feb. 3, 2003
(Charleston, SC) - - South Carolina residents who were formerly not a candidate for laser vision surgery now have access to the latest development in LASIK technology.
MUSC Magill Laser Center is one of two centers in the Southeast now using the first-of-its-kind, wavefront-guided LADARVision® system. This latest advancement also offers improved quality of vision for previously treated patients. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration recently approved this new system for wavefront-guided laser eye surgery in the treatment of nearsightedness. With this new system, made up of the LADARVision® 4000 excimer laser system and the new LADARWave* diagnostic device, surgeons can, for the first time, measure and treat visual disorders that previously could not even be detected.
Several types of imperfections, referred to as lower- and higher-order aberrations,
exist within the eye and can affect both a person's visual acuity and the quality
of vision. To date, only lower-order aberrations, which include nearsightedness,
farsightedness and astigmatism, could be measured and treated. However, lower-order
aberrations do not account for all potential vision disorders. Higher-order
aberrations can also have a significant impact on a person's quality of vision,
and cannot be
corrected with glasses, contacts or conventional LASIK. According to experts
in the field of ophthalmology, higher-order aberrations are linked to visual
disturbances such as glare and halos that may cause night vision problems and
are sometimes associated with conventional LASIK surgery. In addition to these
symptoms, other patient complaints include ghosting images or a second outline
when reading signs that can occur in both dim or bright light. Although these
patients can read the 20/20 line on an eye chart, these symptoms can be problematic
in activities such as driving and detailed night vision.
The LADARVision system is the first-and-only FDA approved eye surgery system
that can measure both lower- and higher-order aberrations, and can actually
be used to treat each patient's unique pattern of lower- and higher-order visual
errors. This highly customized approach creates a new laser eye surgery procedure,
called CUSTOMCORNEA®, that improves both visual acuity, which is measured
against standard numerical outcomes such as 20/20, and the overall quality of
vision, such as
increased visual crispness and clarity. Visual acuity of 20/20, considered by
most as the standard for vision, has been traditionally
measured by a letter chart, which does not provide for detection of many of
the disorders that may affect vision. For example, prior to CUSTOMCORNEA, any
two individuals that had the same prescription would be treated exactly the
same. With CUSTOMCORNEA their laser vision correction can be customized to individually
address vision distortions in addition to simply treating their prescription.
How It Works
In order to create the customized map unique to each patient's eye, the LADARWave* device transmits a safe ray of light into the patient's eye. The light is then reflected back off the retina, out through the pupil, and into the device, where the reflected wave of light is received and arranged into a unique pattern that captures the patient's lower- and higher-order aberrations. All of these visual irregularities are then displayed as a three-dimensional map, referred to as a wavefront map. This information is then electronically transferred to the LADARVision® 4000 excimer laser, and computer-matched to the eye's position, enabling the surgeon to customize the LASIK procedure to each patient's unique visual requirements. This is the only FDA-approved system that actually uses wavefront data to guide laser treatment.
MUSC Magill Laser Center was established in 1994 through a philanthropic gift
from Arthur and Holly Magill from Greenville, South Carolina. As South Carolina's
first laser center, Magill continues to lead the refractive surgery industry
in technology and research. To learn more about laser treatment options, contact
the MUSC Magill Laser Center at 216-2020 or log onto their Web Site
http://Magill.musc.edu.
#####