Continuous monitoring of corneal thickness changes during LASIK with online optical coherence pachymetry

Abstract

Intraoperative online OCP could be an important safety feature to monitor the flap and residual stromal thicknesses during LASIK. The individual ablation depth and possible dehydration effects were also monitored continuously.

Online optical coherence pachymetry to evaluate intraoperative ablation parameters in LASIK

“…The age was 41±12 (mean±SD) years (range 22 to 66 years). A complete ophthalmologic examination was performed on each patient preoperatively, as described previously [26,30,31]. For this study, uncorrected (UCVA) and best-corrected (BCVA) visual acuity measured in decimal fraction, subjective and objective refractions (Speedy-K, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan) were of particular interest.…”

“…The patients were then scheduled for elective refractive surgery. Eligibility and exclusion criteria have been reported previously [26,30,31]. Informed consent was obtained from each subject and all patients were treated in accordance with the Tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.…”

“…This can be responsible for under-or overcorrections, and it must be noted that the ablation algorithms were originally only based on empirical studies [5]. Previous studies have found a significant correlation between the measured and calculated ablation depth in photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laserassisted in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK) [8,13,22,26,31].…”

“…Recently, we presented a high-resolution and noncontact intraoperative monitoring of the central corneal thickness changes by integrating optical coherence pachymetry (OCP) into an excimer laser in experimental [28] and clinical studies [27,29,31]. These studies revealed that online OCP allowed continuous measurement of the intraoperative corneal changes, such as the flap and the residual stromal thickness, with a high reproducibility.…”

Principles and Application of Optical Coherent Tomography in Dermatology

“…An OCT system has been commercialized for several years for ophthalmic use in the diagnosis of focal lesions of the retina and cornea [3] .…”