ZEISS’ Hyperopic SMILE Pro procedure is now available to surgeons in Australia and New Zealand. Building on the established SMILE Pro (small incision lenticule extraction) procedure, this new approach is designed to treat hyperopia, offering an alternative to hyperopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK).
With treatment ranges of up to +7D,* ZEISS SMILE Pro allows surgeons to offer lenticule extraction to a wider range of patients with a solution that has already treated more than 10 million eyes worldwide.
Performed on the ZEISS Visumax 800 femtosecond laser, clinicians also benefit from features that look to improve the patient’s surgical experience, including the OcuLign pattern rotation system.
Having used the Hyperopic SMILE Pro procedure, Adelaide-based ophthalmologist Dr Graham Fraenkel said he has been impressed with his initial experiences.
“Hyperopic treatments are often undertaken in older patients who may be more at risk of dry eye post corneal treatment, so the availability of Hyperopic SMILE for such patients offers the potential of a reduced risk of dry eye in the first year compared to alternative solutions,” explained Dr Fraenkel. “In my experience many presbyopic patients perceive presbyopia as a problem that should have a vision correction solution as simple as spectacle magnifiers. I have found Hyperopic SMILE Pro to be a valuable procedure to offer patients as a part of a vision correction practice’s range of treatment options.”
Perth ophthalmologist Dr Lourens Van Zyl said that with Hyperopic SMILE Pro, hyperopic patients can now “enjoy the same benefits of lenticule extraction correction surgery”.
The surgery itself is very similar to standard myopic SMILE Pro laser eye surgery and the learning curve to perform hyperopic SMILE is minimal. So far, our post-operative outcomes have encouraged us to make hyperopic SMILE our preferred method of treating suitable hyperopic patients,” he said.
* The specified parameter ranges are only accessible under the most favourable parameter combination. Additional limitations are inter-parameter dependencies that can reduce the adjustment range.