Astigmatic Keratotomy Technique May Reduce HOAs

In this interview from AAO 2016, Dr. Anita Nevyas-Wallace discusses laser bridge astigmatic keratotomy (AK), a new method of using femtosecond lasers to perform AK that may induce fewer higher-order aberrations and achieve greater correction of astigmatism than either manual or femtosecond laser incisions. Typical AK incisions are of uniform depth, overcorrecting astigmatism at the center and under-correcting at the ends of the incision, resulting in unwanted higher order aberrations (HOAs). Using the precision of a femtosecond laser, Dr. Nevyas-Wallace co-developed a novel incision architecture that varies the depth of incision at different points, making the incision deeper at the ends and shallower at the center, like a bridge. She has also created an instrument that can perform this technique without a femtosecond laser.