Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/01/2006 --Dr. James J. Salz (Dr. Salz) (www.drsalz.com) presented the results of the Alcon FDA Custom Cornea wavefront based LASIK clinical trial for farsighted astigmatism at the meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons in San Francisco on March 20, 2006. LASIK is the most commonly performed refractive surgery procedure and involves the creation of a thin flap in the cornea and the application of the excimer laser to reshape the corneal curvature. The study showed that wavefront-based LASIK in these patients resulted in better results in terms of uncorrected visual acuity and contrast sensitivity and reduced the induction of higher order aberrations compared to conventional LASIK with the Alcon system. Dr. James Salz received the Best Paper" of the session for his presentation on this form of LASIK.

“Just as in Alcon wavefront based CustomCornea LASIK for nearsightedness, the results in the farsighted eyes showed superior outcomes,” stated Dr. James Salz. “A higher percentage of patients achieved uncorrected vision of 20/20 and 20/40. Visual quality was improved as evidenced by better contrast sensitivity and less increase in higher order aberrations when compared to conventional LASIK.”

Laser eye surgery involves reshaping the cornea, the outer lens of the eye, with an excimer laser beam, to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Laser vision correction was first approved by the FDA in 1996 and the procedure has undergone multiple refinements since the original approval including flap creation with a laser instead of a blade and customized wavefront based treatments which improve the chances of obtaining 20/20 vision or better and provide better quality vision with fewer side effects such a night glare and halos.

LASIK is a popular form of laser eye surgery uses a combination of automated lamellar keratoplasty (ALK) using a microkeratome (FDA approved) to create a “flap” and the excimer laser (FDA approved) to reshape the cornea (“zap”). LASIK is the most commonly performed laser eye procedure worldwide.