Ultraviolet femtosecond laser creation of corneal flap.
To study parameters for ocular femtosecond laser surgery in terms of process efficiency and safety aspects using ultraviolet (UV) femtosecond laser pulses.



Studies on corneal surgery and flap processing on enucleated porcine eyes were performed using a newly developed ytterbium-doped gain media laser source. Ultraviolet femtosecond laser pulses centered at a wavelength of 345 nm and working at a repetition rate of 100 kHz were generated by the third harmonics of the 1035-nm fundamental wavelength.



Flaps with a diameter of 6 mm and a thickness of 100 microm were created in less than 2 minutes with low energy pulses. Transmissions and spectral measurements were performed during flap processing. Less than 2% UV radiation reaches the retina during corneal flap processing. A detectable transmittance towards the retina of visible light centered on 440 nm was found for UV pulses.



Ultraviolet corneal refractive surgery is a novel procedure and has the potential to be an alternative to infrared refractive surgery considering safety aspects.
Fraunhofer Institute of Biomedical Technology, St Ingbert, Germany. ronan.leharzic@ibmt.fraunhofer.de
Ronan
R
Le Harzic
Karsten
K
König
Christian
C
Wüllner
Klaus
K
Vogler
Christof
C
Dnitzky
D000818:Animals; D003319:Corneal Stroma / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D053685:Laser Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013552:Swine; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays