Z-LASIK®

If you’re looking for accurate, safe and comfortable laser refractive surgery, Z-LASIK is the procedure of choice for you.

Z-LASIK corrects your vision using laser surgery from beginning to end. No scalpel will touch your eyes. The risk of complication is reduced even further as compared to previous techniques. And the quality of post-operative vision is better than with any other method.

Have your vision corrected the gentle way and benefit from the most innovative technology for laser eye surgery available today.

Today: Laser-assisted flap creation

For several years now it has been possible to create the flap using a so-called femtosecond laser. This means that no blade is involved in the procedure. Patients feel more comfortable, and the result is even better. Over one million patients have already undergone bladeless laser eye surgery.  With a femtolaser, the flap is created by short bursts of light.

Compared to other femto-LASIK procedures based on older femtolaser technology, Z-LASIK offers many advantages that lead to better results:

• Z-LASIK has an extremely low impact on the eye: The procedure takes only a few minutes per eye. The time the laser is in contact with the patient’s eye is reduced to a minimum.
• Z-LASIK is comfortable and painless:  The patient’s head is not fixed during the procedure.
• Z-LASIK also helps in severe cases: Thanks to the extremely high frequency of the laser pulses, the layers of the cornea are separated with unprecedented precision, creating an ultra-thin flap. Z-LASIK is therefore effective in patients who were previously not candidates for laser surgery. This includes patients with extreme myopia or thin corneas.
• No inflammation: The laser energy used for Z-LASIK is about a 100 times less powerful than with other laser procedures. This is more gentle to the corneal tissue and prevents temporary inflammatory reactions of the eye.
• Fast result: The recovery period is considerably shorter than for other techniques. Patients are usually able to see well within a few hours.
• Fewer side effects:  Z-LASIK enables the surgeon to enlarge the treatment zone. This reduces the risk of undesirable side effects such as dry eyes, deteriorated night vision or haloes (rings of light that surround point sources of light).

The experience gained from over 300,000 Z-LASIK treatments shows that a vast majority of patients

• Did not find the treatment uncomfortable or painful,
• Achieve perfect vision without glasses,
• Are more satisfied with the outcome than they expected,
• Normally see better than they did before with glasses,
• Would choose this method again and recommend it to others

In LASIK, 20/20 Institute LASIK Surgeons substitute the Ziemer Femto LDV laser for the microkeratome blade, removing the specific risks associated with the microkeratome flap creation. The Ziemer Femto LDV procedure improves on the microkeratome LASIK procedure in a number of ways:

• Flexibility—the Femto LDV procedure can be used to treat patients with higher refractive errors, thinner corneas, and even moderate-to-high astigmatism.
• Biomechanical superiority—the Femto LDV procedure creates flaps that are structurally superior and uniformly thin.
• Improved Corneal Wound Healing—because of the superior nature of the Femto LDV flaps, patients heal faster than those have LASIK with the microkeratome.
• Fewer complications—overall, some patients see significant complications with the microkeratome, there are significantly fewer such complications with the Ziemer Femto LDV
• Greater predictability of results--with the Ziemer Femto LDV, patients are more likely to receive ideal vision correction than ever before

The benefits for you are clear: a more customized procedure, less likelihood of complications, and quicker, more accurate results. Looking at all these factors, it is clear that the Ziemer Femto LDV means a whole new generation of LASIK surgery.

The Ziemer Femto LDV laser also has a number of advantages over other Bladeless LASIK systems. These advantages include:

• High frequency pulses (>1000 kHz) that are very short (~250fs) and are low energy (< 100nJ)
• Pulses are small and tightly focused
• More precise cutting plane than competing femtosecond laser, meaning greater accuracy and precision
• Less "shock wave" effect

The advantages of these technical breakthroughs are the reduction in possible complications related to all-laser LASIK. Especially important are the improved clarity of corneal flaps and the near-erasure of the opaque bubble layer (OBL), which can slow down treatment or lead to less than ideal results. More significant complications like vertical gas breakthrough that can lead to buttonhole flap complication and transient light sensitivity (TLS) are also significantly reduced with the Ziemer.