The VISION to SHAPE the FUTURE

Relax - you are being tracked by NASA

Click Here to see an overview of the LADARVision 4000

Click here to see an overview of how the LADARTracker works.

Click here to see an overview of how LASIK works on the LADARVision 4000

Click here to see an example of how 20/20 compares to other visual acuities.

Several things can affect every LASIK procedure:

1. Your vision and the amount of correction you can realistically expect.
2. The experience and expertise of the physician(s).
3. The technology of the laser eye surgery delivery system that will be used.

The first two factors may seem clear but the third may come as some surprise. Technology matters because it can impact the accuracy with which your cornea is reshaped.

The technology used in the LASIK system - the actual equipment that directs and controls the laser beam - can vary greatly.

This is why the Idaho Eye Center is dedicated to providing advanced state-of-the-art technology to achieve the best possible outcomes for you - our patient. It is for this reason that we now offer the NEW Alcon LADARVision® 4000 technology in addition to our other premium laser technologies.

The Alcon LADARVision® 4000 has the widest range of treatments approved by the FDA. This includes myopia, myopia with astigmatism, astigmatism alone, hyperopia, hyperopia with astigmatism and mixed astigmatism. No other laser can treat all of these conditions with a single treatment.

Alcon has drawn heavily from technology developed by NASA for high speed space docking and from technology developed by the Strategic Defense Initiative (StarWars) for microscopic tracking used in the Ballistic Missile Defense systems. Voluntary or involuntary eye movements can result in poor placement of laser ablations leaving a poor treatment pattern. The LADARVision tracking system (called the LADARTracker™) allows precise placement of laser shots, optimizing results.

Video-based tracking systems like those used on other Excimer lasers have not proven that they have the speed required to track saccadic eye movement, LADARVision® clearly has.  The LadarTracker™ is the only tracking system that has an FDA proven claim for improved accuracy in corneal shaping as a result of incorporating a tracking mechanism.

The LadarTracker™ employs a closed-loop system, which stays locked on to the eye at all times with an effective 1 ms response time (a 4,000 Hz sample rate - 4,000 times per second).  Conversely, a broad-beam laser with modified scanning features a 60 Hz video-based, open-loop tracker that takes 67 ms to respond to the same 1mm eye movement.  A great deal of the surgeons we talked to that use the video based trackers turn them off because the video tracker cannot keep up with the laser.  They effectively have turned their tracker into a simple marketing ploy.  With the LADARVision® 4000’s  unmatched accuracy in tracking and compensating for eye movement, every shot delivered is more accurately placed.  In fact, if the laser cannot track, the laser will not fire.  This accuracy and smoothness is achieved only by combining the speed of the laser radar tracker with a small-spot Gaussian beam.  The LADARVision® 4000 employs both technologies.

The LADARVision® 4000 utilizes a true Gaussian beam that is less than 1 mm wide (0.8 mm) small spot placement, hence the term “Small Flying Spot”.  Proprietary algorithms and patented shot pattern placement prevent the beam from revisiting the same spot for a finite interval, allowing for maximal thermal relaxation (thus you are not ablating through plume that contains previously ablated tissue molecules).  The LADARVision® 4000 ablation profiles are calculated to remove the least amount of tissue for a given optical zone and refractive error.

Please be aware that the tracker requires a minimum of a 7mm pupil to track properly.  For this reason, we are required to dilate each patient the day of surgery.   Short duration drops are used which should wear off in a 4 to 6 hour time frame after surgery depending on the patient. 

The LADARVision® 4000 currently houses full capability to perform “Custom Wavefront Guided Ablation”.  It is simply currently turned off pending FDA approval targeted for October/November of 2002 (it received preliminary approval in August 2002).  The Idaho Eye Center has already placed the order for the LADARWave™ CustomCornea® Wavefront analysis equipment slated for November 2002 delivery (pending FDA approval in October/November).  With the exception of adding the LADARWave™ equipment to our technology arena, we will not be required to upgrade the LADARVision® 4000 to perform custom ablation.  Alcon will simply “activate the programming” and link up to the LADARWave™ equipment which will be housed in our clinic at our Idaho Falls location.