An Intralase or Intra Lasik is a refractive eye surgery that is very much similar to a normal lasik surgery. The only difference between a lasik and intralase surgeries is the laser that is used. A classic lasik surgery makes use of a mechanical microkeratome(which uses a steel blade) for creating a corneal flap, while intralase uses a femtosecond laser microkeratome.
That is the reason for intralace also being called a blade less surgery or an all laser lasik.
What is Intralase Lasik Surgery?: Until the year 1994, only excimer lasers were being used for the correction of refractive errors.
- But, Dr. Arturo.S.Chayet of Mexico, wanted to test using a picosecond laser as an alternative to the existing excimer laser. After a few trials, he concluded that these picosecond lasers were not ideal for correcting refractive errors. Instead, he proposed that they could be used for creating corneal flaps(until then corneal flaps were created using a mechanical microkeratome).
- The combined technique of using both an excimer laser and a picosecond laser(for creating corneal flaps) was seen as the advent of Intralase Lasik. Later, the researchers at the Michigan University, suggested the use of a much effective femtosecond laser over a picosecond one. Thus, the existing intralase or intralasik surgery.
Advantages of Intralase Lasik: People affected by presbyopia are known to benefit a lot from intralse surgery.
- This surgery enhances the vision of both distant and near objects in patients suffering from presbyopia.
- The use of a femtosecond laser helps create a precise flap with the accurate size, shape and thickness.
- The accurate flap size enables safety during the surgery. The thinner the flap size the much better the chances of accuracy and predictability during the surgery.
Side-Effects: Not many side-effects are known to develop post an intralasik surgery.
- But, very few patients might suffer from Transient Light Sensitivity(TLS).
- TLS might cause the patient to become severely photophobic and this might last for several weeks post surgery before it resolves by itself.
It should be clear by now to what is Intralase Lasik surgery.
