D. Dausch et al., PHOTOREFRACTIVE KERATECTOMY TO CORRECT ASTIGMATISM WITH MYOPIA OR HYPEROPIA, Journal of cataract and refractive surgery, 20, 1994, pp. 252-257
Excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy as a means to flatten the ce
ntral cornea has generated considerable interest. With this technique
radial symmetric ablations can be performed to correct myopic refracti
ve errors and excise superficial corneal pathology. We developed a tec
hnique that uses toric ablation to correct astigmatism. A new mask was
designed for the MEL 60 Aesculap-Meditec excimer laser. The mask can
be rotated regularly over 360 degrees. By varying the angular distance
s, the surgeon can increase ablation depth in any desired meridian. As
a result, both cylindrical and spherical errors can be corrected in o
ne procedure. Seventy-three eyes with either simple, myopic, mixed, or
irregular astigmatism were treated. In each category of astigmatism,
the surgery reduced the spherical component as well as the overall mea
n preoperative cylindrical refraction. Our findings suggest that this
technique is a safe and effective procedure for correcting different t
ypes of astigmatism.