Wound Healing, Inflammation, and Corneal Ultrastructure After SMILE and Femtosecond Laser –Assisted LASIK: A Human Ex Vivo Study

Small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) is an all-femtosecond laser technique that has recently been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the surgical correction of myopia. It has been hypothesized that by obviating the need for excimer laser photoablation, SMILE may elicit less chemokine and cytokine release with reduced inflammatory response and wound healing reaction of the corneal stroma.1 –3 Evidence derived from rabbit models has accumulated that SMILE4,5 (and its predecessor technique femtosecond lenticule extraction [FLEx]2) induces low levels of inflammatory cell

Source: Journal of Refractive Surgery - June 11, 2018 Category: Opthalmology Authors: Nikolaus Luft, MD, PhD Source Type: research