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Laser Eye Surgery - Laser Comparison

Some providers claim that their lasers are better than lasers used by other clinics.

The truth is that there is no significant advancement in any one laser used by the top 3 Laser Eye Surgery clinics in the UK. They all provide similiar outcomes.

All 3 main Laser Eye Surgery providers use lasers from different companies:

•  Nidek (Optimax)
•  Bausch & Lomb / Technolas Perfect Vision (Ultralase)
•  VISX (Optical Express)

Manufacturers will always promote the advantages of their lasers over competitors.

All 3 laser manufacturers:

     Use World Class technology

     Lasers' provide similar outcomes

     Are involved in ongoing research to bring safer, more accurate lasers to market

Optimax invests in 4 new Nidek lasers every year and to date has not found significant advantages in changing providers.

Compare all 3 lasers on allaboutvision.com, an independent source of impartial information about vision and eye care. You will find little difference between them.

Important facts to consider:

• Skill and experience of the surgeon operating the laser is the most important factor.

• Wavefront technology is the most important advancement in Laser Eye Surgery, and was made 4 years ago. All lasers at Optimax are equipped with the latest Wavefront software.

• All Optimax surgeons are GMC registered and are Members or Fellows of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists. View our surgeon profiles to check their experience and qualifications.

• Clinical studies on lasers are all over the internet from institutions such as the US FDA (Food & Drug Administration). However often these studies cannot be directly comparable with each other, because of different research designs and variables. Allaboutvision.com is completely impartial and independent.

• Clinics may downplay other lasers in favour of their own, but a registered eye surgeon is very unlikely to use an inferior laser.

• Optimax has been at the forefront of technology since opening in 1992 and has provided over 300,000 treatments since then.

Good to know:

• Eye Test equipment is the starting point of good Laser Eye Surgery. You must get this right before going any further.

• Some Laser Eye Surgery providers use eye test equipment made by Nidek, the same company we use for our lasers.

• Actually, the original patents for all refractive equipment was owned and licensed by The Nidek Corporation, when laser eye surgery was invented 25 years ago.

• Nidek is a trusted company, highly valued within the Refractive Correction industry.

• Paul Dougherty's view on the Nidek laser, a high profile refractive surgeon in Hollywood:

"I have been fortunate enough to treat a variety of high profile individuals such as [actors, models, comedians and stars]. Despite the fact that I have access to a number of refractive platforms including the latest model Visx, my outcomes as well as those of a published study validate the Nidek EC-5000 as my laser of choice for most patients." Paul Dougherty MD

http://www.doughertylaservision.com/

Independent Laser Comparison Studies

Study Conducted by Dougherty PJ, Bains HS, November 2008*

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19044229

* BCVA = Best Corrected Visual Acuity

290 Eyes treated, Prescription and Ages of subjects matched, 3 months follow-up data recorded.

Study Conducted by M H Feltham, R Wolfe & F Stapleton, September 2008

http://www.nature.com/eye/journal/v22/n9/abs/6702856a.html

674 Eyes treated, Prescription, Gender and Age of subjects matched.

Study Conducted by Prof. David Gartry MD, March 2009

http://escrs.org/publications/eurotimes/11March/laseraudit.pdf

412 Eyes treated, two brand new machines were tested over the same period of time.

Optimax Laser Facts

 Optimax Lasers are serviced every 6 weeks (manufacturer's recommendation is to service the lasers every 3 months).

 Optimax employ a team of dedicated and specially trained Laser Engineers.

 Optimax Nidek Lasers are upgraded regularly ensuring the most current software and technology.

Laser Comparison Table

	Feature	Diagnostic Aberrometer (calculates Wavefront treatment)	Laser Application	Iris Identification Technology	In-treatment pupil tracker
Nidek: EC5000 CXIII	Optimax	Optical Path Difference (OPD)	Slit Scanning and Rotation with additional 1.0mm spot beam facility and Multipoint ablation	Torsion Error Detection (Pre-treatment adjustments based on involuntary eye movements)	Yes (200 Hz)
Nidek: Quest	Optimax (London, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Croydon)	Optical Path Difference (OPD)	Slit Scanning and Rotation with additional 1.0mm spot beam facility and Multipoint ablation	Torsion Error Correction (In-treatment adjustments based on involuntary eye movements)	Yes (1000 Hz)
VISX Star S4 IR	Other top clinics	Wavescan	Spot Scanning with flat-top beam up to 6.5 mm diameter.	Iris Registration	Yes (60 Hz)
Technolas Perfect Vision 217z100 / 217z100P	Other top clinics	Zywave	Flying Spot technology using combined 1mm and 2mm beam diameter.	Advanced Control Eyetracking (with advanced rotational tracking)	Yes (Video based 240 Hz)

*Since Dougherty's study was published in 2008, the VISX S4 has been superceded by the VISX S4IR. The older S4 is no longer in use in the UK.

 In the absence of more recent research we use this paper to demonstrate that there was no statistical difference in results obtained by the two lasers at that time.