NOVEL APPROACH TO DELIVERING EXCIMER UV ENERGY FOR PRK

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DESCRIPTION: (Adapted From The Investigator's Abstract): Refractive keratotomy, the dominant method for surgical correction of refractive error, has one main weakness - the inability to predict accurately the outcome of surgery for an individual patient. Excimer ultraviolet (UV) lasers offer a potential solution to this problem if they are coupled to an effective laser delivery system. Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK), or laser-based corneal surgery, can be implemented through many types of laser delivery configurations. The two most successful ones are the expanding iris technique, which offers a simple implementation but is limited to treating myopia, and the scanning spot technique which offers the greatest treatment flexibility but with extended treatment times and complicated delivery hardware. FEO Medical proposes to deliver complex correction patterns to the cornea in substantially reduced treatment times using a novel technique based on a digital, micromachined device, consisting of a 640x480 array of individually- controlled micromirrors, coupled to a digital corneal topography system. During Phase I, computer-generated test patterns will be etched onto various UV-sensitive test materials. The resulting etch patterns will be compared to the known patterns to measure the success of the project and establish a basis for the Phase II effort which will involve animal and human studies.