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Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Eight

S e e i n g i s L i v i n g TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN OPHTHALMOLOGY Our eyes are our most important sensory organ. The human brain obtains over 80 percent of its information via the sense of sight. Our eyes are the windows to the world. Seeing is recognising. Seeing is experiencing. Seeing is independence and freedom. Seeing is living! Dr Frank Howes (Eye and Laser Centre Gold Coast) Our eyes are our most important sensory organ. The human brain obtains over 80 percent of its information via the sense of sight. Our eyes are the windows to the world. Seeing is recognising. Seeing is experiencing. Seeing is independence and freedom. Seeing is living! More than half the world’s population relies on contact lenses or glasses to see well but many find that being dependent upon optical appliances interferes with their professional lives and leisure time. Thanks to ongoing developments in medicine and technology, refractive visual correction techniques have been scientifically recognised and clinically tested over the last few decades. For this reason they have come to represent an important alternative to traditional correction methods such as contact lenses and glasses. One of the latest surgical advances within the refractive surgical fields of ophthalmology is the Visumax Femtosecond Laser technology. This technology stands on the shoulders of the knowledge, experiences and success of its predecessors and represents the third generation of laser correction. Refractive eye surgery began in the 1980s with Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) where the surface of the cornea is lasered into a new shape to correct vision. The term used for this process is ‘ablation’, meaning that the corneal substance is evaporated by an excimer laser. This was the first generation of laser correction and is still used under specific circumstances today. The second generation of laser treatment is the well-known LASIK (Laser Intrastromal Keratomilieusis). This process involves cutting a surface flap of corneal tissue and requires a 340-degree surface cut, leaving a small portion uncut to act as a hinge that allows lifting replacement of the flap. The ablation is performed in the bed of the flap, creating the corneal reshaping for correction of the visual defect. 12 Pindara Magazine 2016


Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Eight
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