Evolution of excimer laser corneal surgery.

Interest in the potential of the excimer laser for refractive surgery was generated by a series of experiments performed in IBM's T.J. Watson laboratories. The development of photoablative decomposition was applied to corneas with immediate implication for corneal refractive control. Scientific investigations demonstrated that submicron erosion ablation of material was possible without damage to remaining tissues. After refinement of the beam and analysis of thresholds, we subsequently demonstrated that healing of large ablated areas in rabbits and then primate eyes would occur without scar formation or loss of transparency. This prompted a number of commercial efforts to develop this device for both refractive and general corneal surgical applications. The early clinical investigations show that a predictable refractive change could be induced in a cornea and this change was stable over many months. Furthermore, the transparency of the cornea was unimpaired. These favorable early results have led to a number of clinical investigations of excimer laser corneal surgery including refractive keratectomy, a direct laser keratomileusis.