Laser Eye Surgery Technology

State-of-the-Art Technology… for Your Eyes

Kelowna Laser Vision uses the latest Custom Wavefront Guided laser technology from Abbott Medical Optics (AMO), recognized worldwide for bringing innovation and breakthrough technology to laser vision correction. AMO has established exceptional standards in laser vision correction by providing precise measurement and correction procedures, using several patented technologies such as Fourier analysis and Iris Registration. More physicians in North America choose AMO Star lasers (previously known as VISX lasers) to perform laser vision correction than all other lasers combined. VISX led the industry since the beginning of laser eye surgery and AMO is proud to continue the commitment to deliver innovations that improve outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Over 60% of all Laser Vision Correction procedures in North America are performed on a Star laser.

Wavefront-Guided Technology
What is Wavefront-Guided Technology?

Wavefront optics is the science behind measuring and correcting the distortions in optical systems such as telescopes, microscopes, and binoculars. The Hubble Space Telescope, for example, corrects for distortions to give us a clearer picture of the universe.

Wavefront technology generates a meticulous map of your eye's aberrations (irregularities) by passing a beam of safe laser light through your eye. Light reflected out from the retina passes through the crystalline lens, cornea, and finally through an array of tiny lenses in a wavefront analyzer that focus and record the image on a digital CCD camera. The resulting data is used to generate a customized map, plotting high and low order visual aberrations. This information is transferred to the Star S4 IR Laser to produce a highly precise series of pulses to your cornea. The final result is a personalized treatment providing you with the best possible outcome.

The Kelowna Laser Vision medical team believes that all patients deserve the very best treatment that technology and expertise can offer, so we have adopted Custom Wavefront Guided surgery as our standard. This advanced technology allows physicians to customize treatment according to the unique characteristics of each patient's eyes, unlike older traditional methods that base treatment on prescription information similar to that used for glasses and contact lenses. Clinical studies show that the Custom™ Wavefront Guided procedure can potentially produce better vision than is possible with glasses or contact lenses.

How does Custom Wavefront-Guided Technology relate to my vision?

Each eye has imperfections that cause blurred vision. The low order imperfections are called refractive errors and include nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. These can be corrected by glasses, contact lenses or conventional laser surgery. There are also other imperfections called high order aberrations which include spherical aberration, coma, trefoil, and quadrafoil. These can also cause blurred vision or poor quality vision under certain conditions.

In the past there was no way to measure or correct high order aberrations. Recently, however, laser technology has advanced to the point where refractive errors caused by both low and high order aberrations can be treated by removing microscopic amounts of corneal tissue with an excimer laser. Only Custom Wavefront Guided Laser Vision Correction allows surgeons to measure and treat both types of aberrations in the eye.

What are the Advantages of Wavefront Technology?

State-of-the-art AMO Custom Wavefront Guided Laser Vision Correction employs Wavefront-Guided technology to map the specific nuances of each patient's vision. The analysis produces a Customized laser treatment that treats both low and high order refractive problems. This higher degree of precision has allowed people to achieve vision beyond what was possible with glasses, contact lenses, or older, more traditional conventional laser treatments.

Origins and Science of Wavefront Technology

Wavefront technology was originally developed for use in high powered telescopes to reduce distortions when viewing distant objects in space. It was found that a single lens power could not clearly image an object in space due to localized atmospheric distortion causing areas of different focal powers all within the same image. Adaptive optics divides the area of one large lens into many small lenses, called lenslets, so that each can be focused clearly. The overall image is then recreated from each of the clear lenslet images, thus bringing the entire image into focus. The reconstruction of the individual lenslet images is called the wavefront image.

The human eye focuses images in a similar way to telescopes. With a telescope, the general focus (low order aberration) is brought into alignment with the overall power adjustment. Then, local atmospheric distortions (high order aberrations) are focused with adaptive optics, or wavefront technology. In the eye, the overall focus (low order aberration) can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or conventional laser eye surgery. However, the image focused by the human eye is also subject to local distortions, called high order aberrations. These are quantified with a wavefront aberrometer (WaveScan) and displayed as a wavefront image so that we can assess the quality of image that your eye can focus. This information is used to plan your treatment to include high order aberration correction, customizing your treatment to give you the best quality of vision possible. Only Custom Wavefront Guided Laser Treatment can treat both low and high order aberrations.

More surgeons in North America use AMO's Custom Wavefront Guided technology for their patients than any other technology because clinical studies have demonstrated that Wavefront-Guided treatment can potentially produce better vision than is possible with glasses or contact lenses and patients can achieve better overall clarity of vision and better night vision than with previous technologies.

AMO Custom Wavefront Guided Procedure – Why is it the treatment of choice for your eyes? The custom treatment Kelowna Laser Vision offers is a marriage of two innovative technologies: the Wavescan Wavefront Diagnostic System and the Star S4 IR™ Laser Platform. Using the Wavefront Diagnostic System, our experts map your eyes to obtain a prescription individual to you. We then use the advanced Star S4 IR Laser to correct your vision precisely to that prescription. This diagnostic and treatment system combined allows us to locate and correct the unique anomalies of each eye for maximum vision improvement. At Kelowna Laser Vision we recommend the Custom Wavefront Guided procedure. Medical studies show that this technology gives patients the potential for better overall clarity of vision than with glasses or contact lenses, enhanced night vision, and better vision than laser surgery with conventional or optimized laser procedures. The published studies also show significantly lower retreatment rates for custom wavefront guided procedures than with optimized or conventional procedures.

The Star S4 IR Laser - Why it's Technology Matters to You AMO's latest excimer laser system represents the most advanced laser technology platform available. Integrating data collected by the WaveScan System, the Star S4 IR utilizes these patented and proprietary technologies:

ActiveTrak 3-D Active Eye Tracking: Captures all 3 dimensions of intra-operative eye movements and aligns laser pulses in precisely the correct location regardless of patient eye movement during surgery. This means you do not have to hold your eye perfectly still, but can relax, knowing your treatment is precisely centered on your eye. Iris Registration (IR): The first FDA-approved, fully automated method of rotational alignment of wavefront data to the correct corneal location. This is very important to ensure the treatment of all aberration, especially astigmatism and high order aberration is in proper position. It also compensates for changes in pupil center position (call pupil centroid shift) under different lighting conditions. This reduces the possibility of decentered treatment. Variable Spot Scanning (VSS): Variable laser beam sizes from as small as 0.65 mm up to 6.5 mm scanned over the treatment area. This conserves corneal tissue and allows for faster treatment times. Variable Repetition Rate (VRR): VRR delivers treatment at varying repetition rates, optimizing treatment time. Less energy build-up is needed for small laser spot sizes allowing laser pulses to be applied faster, thus decreasing the overall time for treatment.

Comparison of Technologies

Conventional: The original or "traditional" treatment, conventional is the most basic type of laser eye treatment, Conventional treatments treat only nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. It does not treat high order aberrations such as spherical aberration, coma, trefoil, or quadrafoil. Like all laser treatments it may in fact induce high order aberration, particularly spherical aberration (the main high order aberration that causes night vision glare).

• All patients with the same prescription are treated in the same way.
• May induce high order aberrations, most prominent is spherical aberration.

Wavefront Optimized: Wavefront Optimized only treats nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, but is designed to minimize induced spherical aberration in most patients. Like conventional treatment, it does not treat high order aberrations.

• Reduces the induction of spherical aberration but not other high order aberrations.
• Treatment basis is nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism like conventional treatment. Spherical aberration control uses an average measurement from a database of patients.
• It is not a custom treatment

Customized Wavefront Guided: The newest, most sophisticated level of laser eye surgery, Custom Wavefront-Guided measures and treats all aberrations including nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, spherical aberration, coma, trefoil, quadrafoil, and other high order aberrations.

• Every eye is custom treated based on wavefront diagnostic information.
• More data points are measured for highly precise diagnosis and treatment of all aberrations.
• Reduces the induction of high order aberrations, increasing the potential for better clarity of vision

Laser Eye Surgery Technology Facts
Interesting Laser Eye Surgery Technology Facts

• The first human eye was treated in 1987 using an AMO laser (formerly VISX).
• There have been 7 generations of laser systems since 1987 and over 30 platform upgrades.
• Over 60% of all Laser Vision Correction procedures in North America are performed on an AMO Star laser.
• AMO, the manufacturer of the Star laser, invests more in R&D than all other laser companies combined (over 60 research scientists).
• AMO lasers have treated more than 8 million eyes worldwide, safely and with excellent results.
• In North America, more procedures are done with AMO Star technology than all other lasers combined.
• Each day, 2,000 procedures are performed on people around the world