About Magill Vision Center

The most accurate and safest form of LASIK surgery available in the world, wavefront technology, just got even better.

Called iris registration, the latest upgrade to custom LASIK procedures allows surgeons to perfectly "map" the eye. This precision makes it possible to achieve vision 20/20 or better, while improving the patient's quality of vision, especially at night and in low light.

The unique pattern of points on a person's iris is much like a fingerprint in that no two individuals have the same iris points. By mapping the iris, surgeons can now lock on the eye so that the lasers are in exact position.

"The new technology allows us to map out the eye and take a memorized, digitized picture of the iris," explains Magill Laser Center Medical Director, ophthalmologist Kerry Solomon, MD, who helped bring this new technology to Charleston. "When the patient is under the laser, the new technology reprocesses and recreates that picture. It automatically adjusts the mirrors to dial in the procedure so everything is perfectly alighted to deliver energy exactly where we want it to be. The result is a better quality of vision in lowlight, nighttime and daytime."

Iris registration is important because the eye tends to rotate a little when the patient moves from an upright to a reclined position. In the absence of iris registration, any rotation or shifting of the eye, slight though it may be, is not accounted for. This means the position of the lasers is not necessarily an exact match.

"With the addition of iris registration, we have a perfect lock on the exact position of the cornea. We're down to the micron level now in terms of precision," says Dr Solomon. "That's what you need to achieve better than 20/20 vision."

According to Magill Laser Center eye surgeon David Vroman, MD, who specializes in cataract and refractive surgery, anyone who is a candidate for the LASIK procedure is a candidate for iris technology. "It's an exciting time," he says. "We're able to offer better and more precise treatments than we ever have before. Wavefront technology combined with iris registration has taken treatment to a whole new level."

For patients, having their eyes mapped is a simple process. It involves nothing more than placing their chin and forehead on standard equipment. The part that is new is the detail that can be captured by the equipment that images the eye.

Refractive surgery is now an option for the full range of vision problems. The custom wavefront technology with iris registration is FDA-approved for treatment of far-sightedness, far-sightedness with astigmatism, mild and severe near sightedness, with or without astigmatism. This is an especially exciting time for Magill Laser Center which is part of the world-renowned Storm Eye Institute in Charleston, SC, as it is one of the first sites in the country to offer this new technology to patients.

Is all LASIK surgery the same? The answer is no. The general term applies to three different forms of refractive surgery - conventional, custom and custom with iris registration. Conventional LASIK surgery has been around for years as a way to surgically correct vision within the range of what can be achieved through glasses or contacts. With the advent of wavefront technology, surgeons can now deliver a procedure that is customized to the specific eye being treated rather than using a more generalized calculation. Iris registration makes the procedure even more precise. The result is a quality of vision better than that achieved through glasses or contacts.

The science behind the new approaches comes from strides made in the optics that make up the highly sophisticated Hubble telescope. Dr Solomon describes the eye as like a fancy telescope. "Redefining optics in telescopes has allowed astronomers to see star systems farther away than we knew existed. The scientists who redesigned the telescopes said, 'Why don't we apply the principals of optics and telescopes to the eye?' That's what wavefront technology is."

Because it is part of an academic medical center, one distinct advantage of Storm Eye Institute is its commitment to being on the cutting edge of new technologies and procedures. In many cases, Drs Solomon and Vroman are key players in the development and evaluation of these advancements.

"A lot of patients have waited to have LASIK because they were 'watching' the technology. The time is now," says Dr Vroman. "Through custom LASIK and iris registration, we can map the eye precisely and perform a procedure that is exact to those measurements so that each individual patient is truly getting a custom experience."

"It's not only about getting a 20/20 reading or better in the office," says Dr Solomon. "We take stock in what patients are telling us they experience in real world environments, when they're driving across the new Cooper River Bridge or playing sports or out on the ocean." Dr Vroman agrees, "Our patients tell us that their better quality of vision gives them a better quality of life. That's what it's all about."

For more information about iris registration or custom LASIK, call Magill Laser Center at (843) 216-2020 or email lasik@musc.edu