Visx Wins Circle of Excellence Award

The CustomVue laser wavefront system is an ophthalmic laser surgery device that combines new photonics technologies to provide personalized laser vision correction for both nearsightedness and astigmatism, tailoring a unique correction for every eye. It comprises a WaveScan aberrometer, a Star excimer laser and software. Visx Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., says that its laser refractive surgery system can produce 25 times better results than glasses or contact lenses.

The WaveScan uses Hartmann-Shack wavefront technology to capture a fingerprint of the eye, measuring more than the two standard parameters of sphere and cylinder. It shines a dim laser onto the retina, close to the fovea, and analyzes the reflected light via an array of microlenses, a CCD array and a software algorithm. The software converts the wavefront map of the aberrations into a pattern of laser pulses that are required to correct the imperfections.

The company's Star excimer laser produces pulses at about 200 mJ, with a repetition rate that varies during the treatment between 1 and 20 Hz and a beam size varying between 0.65 and 6.55 mm in diameter. These variations minimize heating of the eye during the ablation process, which takes less than a minute.