The Eye Centre Group is delighted to be the first refractive surgery clinic in Australasia to offer FLEX laser vision correction surgery to our patients for the correction of myopia.
We believe that this technology, developed by Carl Zeiss Meditec AG in Germany, represents the future direction of laser refractive surgery for short-sighted patients.
We have introduced FLEX technology because we believe it is the very best and most advanced procedure we can currently offer suitable patients. No other New Zealand laser clinic can currently create the precise correction you need by shaping the corrective lens inside your cornea, as we do with the Flex procedure.
FLEX, which stands for Femtosecond Lenticule Extraction, is an entirely new way of correcting myopia (or short sight).
Myopia is normally corrected using an operation called LASIK, where a laser, called a femtosecond laser, makes a thin flap on the cornea (the clear tissue on the front of the eye). The flap is then lifted out of the way and the underlying corneal tissue is reshaped to correct the myopia using a second laser, called an excimer laser
In FLEX surgery, the whole procedure is performed using a single femtosecond laser, the VisuMax laser made by Carl Zeiss Meditec. The VisuMax laser creates a thin lens shaped piece of tissue, called a lenticule, in the middle of the cornea. The VisuMax laser then makes a flap around the edge of the lenticule. This flap is then lifted out of the way, the lenticule is removed, and the flap replaced (see illustrations).
FLEX has a number of advantages over LASIK. These include:
FLEX is currently only available for short sighted patients. The current treatment range is from -0.5 dioptres to -10.0 dioptres - this covers over 85% of shortsighted patients. Astigmatism can also be treated using FLEX. Long sight cannot currently be treated with FLEX but Carl Zeiss Meditec is in the trial phase of developing FLEX for long sighted patients. If you are having LASER BLENDED VISION surgery you will still need to have conventional LASIK. Finally some patients whose corneas are outside the normal range of measurements may need to have Advanced Surface Ablation laser treatment.
FLEX has proven to be a very safe procedure. In studies performed when the technique was being developed, no patients lost visual acuity - that is, no-one had poorer vision without correction after surgery than they did with glasses or contacts prior to surgery. In addition, there were no serious adverse events, such as infection or scarring, reported.
The VisuMax laser has FDA approval. FLEX is not yet FDA approved. However, FLEX received CE approval in 2009 - this is the European equivalent of FDA approval. FDA approval is very costly and time consuming and frequently medical technology companies avoid seeking FDA approval for many years, gaining CE approval instead. As a result, the USA lags behind the rest of the world in many medical procedures. FLEX is now being performed in many areas of the world, including Europe, India and the Middle East, South East Asia, and now in New Zealand.
The simple truth is that other femtosecond lasers used elsewhere are not accurate enough to perform refractive corrections. They are quite adequate to cut simple corneal flaps for LASIK, but their accuracy is too low to give the necessary precision to correct refractive errors. To give an idea of the accuracy required, to keep the surgery outcomes within the necessary limits, the laser must be able to divide the corneal tissue at an accuracy of within 5 microns. Carl Zeiss Meditec designed the VisuMax laser from the very beginning with the aim of using it to correct refractive errors. With their vast experience in advanced optical design, they are one of the few companies capable of doing this.
Thank you for your interest in FLEX surgery from the Wellington Eye Centre - part of The eye Centre Group.
We have a proud record of technical innovation in the fields of corneal and refractive surgery, being the first New Zealand clinic to perform LASIK surgery in 1996. In addition, we have pioneered many advanced corneal surgery techniques including endothelial transplantation, corneal rings and corneal collagen cross linking, epikeratoplasty and EPILASIK. With the Wellington Eye Centre you can be confident of receiving the most advanced techniques currently available.
For a suitability assessment please contact our closest Eye Centre in either Wellington, Palmerston North or Hastings, or you can request an assessment online.