Results of 308 consecutive femtosecond laser cuts for LASIK

For technical reasons, the rotating knives (microkeratomes) commonly used for flap creation in LASIK may induce cut complications such as buttonholes or incomplete flaps. Femtosecond (femto) lasers should reduce these risks because, compared with microceratomes, femtolasers work more precisely and individually, so the flap can be individualized according to the patient's eye condition. Therefore, surgery should be less of a strain to patients, vision should recover faster, and optical quality should be optimized. In this study, 308 consecutive femtolaser cuts for myopic LASIK performed with the IntraLase FS60 between August 2006 and March 2008 were evaluated and compared with the approved key literature. For all cuts, just three complications (incomplete ring cuts of about 20A degrees) occurred. All were completed with a diamond knife without any further problems. No other complications - including the typical microceratome-induced cut complications - were observed. In this small series of 308 operations, femto-LASIK induced no major cut complications.