Cutting-edge laser eye surgery –with no cuts

31 August, 2009, 10:13

Russian scientists have developed a new laser which can correct eyesight without cutting the surface of the eye.

Laser surgery to restore eyesight has been performed for nearly two decades, and every year the procedure becomes safer and easier.

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Currently, it can be done using two lasers, one opening the eye's surface and the other working with the cornea itself.

But soon even this futuristic technology may seem ancient as true technology of the 21st Century steps in.

“Our laser is able to penetrate the eye's cornea without damaging its surface. As a result we can make the needed changes inside the eyeball without having to open it first,” shares Konstantin Lapshin, senior researcher at Physics Instrumentation Centre.

The femtosecond laser generates impulses of light less than one billionth of a second long. Such beams can cut or evaporate matter when several lasers are aimed at one spot.

This type of laser is capable of cutting 3-D images inside a solid piece of glass, produced by millions of tiny dots which were made by a femtosecond laser without damaging the surface. An operation on an eye is done in the same way, except the dots are more than one hundred times smaller and just one mistake can leave a person blind for life.

The laser was developed and produced at the Physics Instrumentation Centre near Moscow, which has been in the business for 35 years. The centre now controls nearly 60% of the Russian market, competing with producers from Switzerland and the US, but it's hungry for more.

The center’s director, Sergey Vartapetov, is positive that his company is entering the market at the same time as Western companies.

“We're not trailing. For example, the Swiss laser can perform only one operation, while our product can do much more.”

The center is already supplying lasers to the CIS countries, China, Iran and Nigeria. The first steps toward expansion have already been made, with its products recently certified in the European Union, lighting the way towards the vast markets of the West.