ALLEGRETTO WAVE® Eye-Q

Overview

Vision—Accuracy, Total Control

Taking human sight beyond 20/20 is possible. The ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q customizes every treatment to the patient’s individual prescription and cornea while aiming to improve what nature originally designed. The Wavefront Optimized™ treatment considers the unique curvature and biomechanics of the eye, preserving quality of vision and addressing the spherical distortions that can induce glare and night vision reduction.

Performance—Superior Clinical Results

WaveLight was the first company to introduce high-speed laser vision correction in the United States. Now, the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q takes the technology one step further with the fastest excimer laser system available today in the U.S. Thanks to the incredible power of the laser, many people can have their vision corrected in as little as eight seconds, some even more quickly. At the same time, the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q delivers superior results, with less risk of side effects.

Safety—PerfectPulse Technology™

PerfectPulse Technology™ ensures safe and precise work at high speed. Each ultra-thin laser pulse is used to sculpt the corneal surface of the eye with the utmost accuracy. The high-speed eye-tracker follows the eye’s fastest movements, checking the eye’s positions 400 times per second while ensuring an accurate placement of each laser pulse on the cornea. In addition, an integrated crossline projector provides the surgeon with an exact alignment of the eye’s position, making the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q one of the safest, most effective optical lasers currently available.

PerfectPulse Technology™

PerfectPulse Technology™ represents a new approach to laser vision correction. It accounts for much of the speed, precision, and safety of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q laser and offers improvements that are revolutionary in the field. Smart energy control measures and adjusts energy levels in the laser pulse from creation to delivery. High-speed eye tracking charts the eye’s movement 400 times per second. As a result, every laser pulse is completely controlled, allowing for the most accurate level of correction possible.

Smart Energy Control

You can have peace of mind that the amount of energy in the laser has been calibrated to exactly the right level. After the beam has been created, it passes through three checkpoints on its way to your eye. At each of these points, the energy level is checked and adjusted if necessary, ensuring that the beam is perfectly attuned at its destination.

The ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q laser is essentially a precise, controlled beam of energy. The laser employs a proprietary overlapping method to ensure accurate laser placement, and is one of the ways that ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q is able to achieve a rounder, more natural corneal surface than many other lasers used for vision correction.

Eye Tracking Technology

Due to the remarkable speed of both the eye and the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q procedure, the laser beam needs to be constantly and minutely adjusted to the position of the eye at any given time. Every four to six milliseconds, the eye’s location is measured and the internal mirrors of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q are automatically aligned. Just before the pulse is released, a second check is made to confirm that the eye has not moved. This happens 400 times every second, once for every laser pulse. If, at any time, the eye moves too quickly to be measured or moves out of range, the laser will stop and wait for the eye to move back into position.

Speed

Currently, the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q is the fastest vision correction laser for LASIK available in the United States. At 400 laser bursts per second, it takes only about two seconds of treatment to correct one diopter. Of course, spending less time under the laser means less stress and discomfort for the patient.

Wavefront Optimized™ Technology

One of the most innovative features of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q is the way it uses Wavefront Optimized™ technology to automatically compensate for the curvature of the cornea. In earlier laser correction systems, the “optical zone,” or area of correction, was centered on the front of the cornea; the result was a flattened circular area that ended with an abrupt edge, causing unwanted side effects like poor night vision, glare, and halos.

The ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q changes all that. The ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q sends extra pulses to the peripheral corneal area in order to compensate for the angle of the laser beam. In this manner, the aspherical shape of the cornea is preserved to a degree that older lasers simply could not achieve. This compensation, combined with the incredibly small, 1mm size of the laser, produces a smooth, effective optical zone that results in what can only be described as seeing like never before.

Imagine a glass ball. If you took a flashlight and aimed it directly at the top of the ball, the light would form a circular shape on the surface of the ball. If you now aimed the flashlight towards the side of the ball, the light would form an elliptical shape and not seem as bright anymore. This is because the same amount of light is suddenly distributed over a larger area, and some of the light is reflected away due to the angled surface of the glass ball.

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See Like Never Before

Large Optical Zones

The ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q is capable of producing some of the largest available optical zones. The optical zone refers to the portion of the cornea that has been corrected by the laser. A larger optical zone is especially important for night vision and for patients with very large pupils. If a patient’s pupil is larger than the optical zone, they may experience poor peripheral vision, poor night vision, and a higher than normal incidence of “halos” and glare. In the past, this has been one of the biggest drawbacks to conventional laser correction surgery. Wavefront Optimized™ technology built into the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q addresses this limitation.

Better Night Vision and Glare Control

At night and in dark conditions, the pupil becomes larger to permit the maximum amount of light to enter the eye. Laser eye correction needs to take this fact into account. If the optical zone is smaller than the size of the pupil at its largest, there is a good chance that the patient will experience poor night vision or problems with glare and halos around bright objects such as oncoming headlights. ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q is able to produce a larger optical zone, virtually eliminating glare and night vision problems associated with older generation lasers.

Clinical Results

When it was approved in 2003 as the first new laser in five years, the FDA granted the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® the widest approval range ever initially given to a new laser for both myopic and hyperopic vision correction. Since then, the results have been astoundingly positive. On gaining FDA approval in 2006, the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q took this tradition of excellence another step forward, providing proven superior clinical results, as shown by the following statistics:

• -- At one year after treatment, more than 93% of patients said they saw at least as well as or better than they had with glasses or contacts before treatment.
• -- More than 98% of patients achieved 20/40 vision one year after treatment; 20/40 is the level of visual acuity required to pass most driving tests.
• -- Nearly 60% of near-sighted patients achieved 20/16 vision after one year of treatment.
• -- Both near- and far-sighted patients reported an improvement in their reaction to bright lights and night driving glare after ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q treatments. In addition, near-sighted patients reported an improvement in sensitivity to light.
• -- Predictable results are the norm for the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q. More than 90% of patients achieve refraction within 1 diopter of their target correction.

A great source for information about LASIK and questions to ask your physician is the FDA website and the website of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

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Is ALLEGRETTO WAVE® Eye-Q Right for Me?

The ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q expands the boundaries of candidacy for LASIK. However, there are certain people who are less than ideal candidates for LASIK and ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q treatment. You are encouraged to speak with your doctor to find the best vision correction alternative if:

• -- You are under 21. In this case, your growth phase has not been fully completed, meaning that your eyes can still change. In that case, LASIK is not a good option.
• -- You are pregnant or nursing. Pregnancy causes changes to your hormonal system. This can also cause your vision to change. It is therefore better to wait until your child is born and you have finished nursing.
• -- You have glaucoma or high blood pressure.
• -- You have keratoconus, a corneal irregularity.
• -- You have inflammation of the eye (uveitis, blepharitis or iritis)
• -- Your eyes have been infected by herpes simplex.
• -- You have suffered previous severe injuries on the eye.
• -- You have corneal scars or infections.
• -- You are taking certain medications.
• -- You suffer from other diseases of the eye such as AMD, diabetic retinopathy, cataract, or others

LASIK is also not recommended for patients with:

• -- Very large pupils
• -- Thin corneas
• -- Dry eye
• -- Unstable refractive errors

 

During the consultation with your doctor, please be sure to mention all medications you are taking and any medical conditions you have that might affect the success of laser correction.

For information regarding the risks and benefits associated with the ALLEGRETTO WAVE^® Eye-Q treatment, please visit www.allegrettowave.com or www.fda.gov. Download FDA Studies.