Overview
Vision—Accuracy,
Total Control
ALLEGRETTO WAVE®’s revolutionary approach to laser vision
correction minimizes problems associated with older generation lasers, such as night
vision reduction, glare, and halos.
Performance—Superior
Clinical Results
The success of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® can be directly
measured by our patients’ remarkable improvement in visual acuity and low
occurrence of side effects.
Safety—PerfectPulse
Technology™
Smart energy control and eye tracking technology combine to provide
an ultra-fast solution to laser vision correction. Innovative and redundant
safeguards make ALLEGRETTO WAVE® a leader in the field.
PerfectPulse
Technology™
PerfectPulse Technology™ represents a new approach to laser vision
correction – it accounts for speed, precision, and safety in the ALLEGRETTO
WAVE® laser and offers improvements that are revolutionary in the
field. Smart energy control measures and adjusts energy levels in the laser
pulse from creation to delivery. High-speed eye tracking charts the eye’s
movement 200 times per second. As a result, every laser pulse is completely
controlled and accurate, achieving the most accurate level of correction
possible.
Smart
Energy Control
You
can have peace of mind that the amount of energy in the laser has been
calibrated to exactly the right level. After the beam has been created, it
passes through three checkpoints on its way to your eye. At each of these
points, the energy level is checked and adjusted if necessary, ensuring that
the beam is perfectly attuned at its destination.
ALLEGRETTO
WAVE®’s laser is essentially a precise, controlled beam of energy.
The laser employs a proprietary overlapping method to ensure accurate laser
placement, and is one of the ways that ALLEGRETTO WAVE® achieves a
rounder, more natural corneal surface than many other lasers used for vision
correction.
Eye
Tracking Technology
Due to the remarkable speed of both the eye and the ALLEGRETTO WAVE®
procedure, the laser beam needs to be constantly and minutely adjusted to the
position of the eye at any given time. Every 4-6 milliseconds, the eye’s
location is measured and the internal mirrors of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE®
are automatically aligned. Right before the pulse is released, a second check
is made to confirm that the eye has not moved. This happens 200 times every
second, once for every laser pulse. If, at any time, the eye moves too quickly
to be measured or moves out of range, the laser will stop and wait for the eye
to move back into position.
Speed
At 200 laser bursts per second, it only takes about four seconds of
treatment to correct one diopter. Of course, spending less time under the laser
means less stress and discomfort for the patient.
Wavefront
Technology
Wavefront-Guided
Treatments—For Patients Requiring Even Greater Personalization
Due
to the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® providing custom vision correction with the
standard Wavefront Optimized™ treatment, the majority of patients may not
benefit from a Wavefront-Guided treatment. However, after an extensive analysis
of your vision, the doctor will determine whether this treatment will be
helpful with the overall laser vision correction outcome.
The
Wavefront-Guided treatment involves an additional step where the results of a
detailed scan with the WaveLight ALLEGRO Analyzer provides further measurements
for the treatment plan, the data is validated, and then it is transferred to
the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® laser system. Next, the final treatment profile
is calculated, and then the laser treatment begins.
If
you are a candidate for Wavefront-Guided treatment, you should be pleased to
know that patient outcomes from our clinical study results and important
distinctions are impressive. A few of the highlights which may be of interest
include:
- Glare, and night driving
glare, improved for the majority of patients over the glare they experienced
with eyeglasses or contact lenses.
- 93% of patients achieved
UCVA 20/20 or better.
- The ALLEGRETTO WAVE®
is the first system to allow customized correction for patients with
presbyopia (those who need reading glasses).
For
a complete list of the clinical outcomes, visit the website www.allegrettowave.com.
Wavefront
Optimized™ Laser Vision Correction
One
of the most innovative features of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® is the way
it uses Wavefront-Optimized™ technology to automatically compensate for the curvature
of the cornea. In earlier laser correction systems, the “optical zone,” or area
of correction, was centered on the front of the cornea; the result was a
flattened circular area that ended with an abrupt edge, causing unwanted side
effects like poor night vision, glare, and halos.
The
ALLEGRETTO WAVE® changes all that. The ALLEGRETTO WAVE®
sends extra pulses to the peripheral corneal area in order to compensate for
the angle of the laser beam. In this manner, the aspherical shape of the cornea
is preserved to a degree that older lasers simply could not achieve. This
compensation, combined with the incredibly small, 1mm size of the laser,
produces a smooth, effective optical zone that results in what can only be
described as seeing like never before.
Imagine
a glass ball. If you took a flashlight and aimed it directly at the top of the
ball, the light would form a circular shape on the surface of the ball. If you
now aimed the flashlight towards the side of the ball, the light would form an
elliptical shape and not seem as bright anymore. This is because the same
amount of light is suddenly distributed over a larger area and some of the
light is reflected away due to the angled surface of the glass ball.
See
Like Never Before
Large
Optical Zones
ALLEGRETTO WAVE® is capable of producing some of the
largest available optical zones. The optical zone refers to the portion of the
cornea that has been corrected by the laser. A larger optical zone is
especially important for night vision, and for patients with very large pupils.
If a patient’s pupil is larger than the optical zone, they may experience poor
peripheral vision, poor night vision, and a higher than normal incidence of “halos”
and glare. In the past, this has been one of the biggest drawbacks to conventional
laser correction surgery. Wavefront-Optimized™ technology built into ALLEGRETTO
WAVE® addresses this limitation.
Better
Night Vision and Glare Control
At night and in dark conditions, the pupil becomes larger to permit
the maximum amount of light to enter the eye. Laser eye correction needs to
take this fact into account. If the optical zone is smaller than the size of
the pupil at its largest, there is a good chance that the patient will
experience poor night vision or problems with glare and halos around bright
objects such as oncoming headlights. ALLEGRETTO WAVE® is able to
produce a larger optical zone, virtually eliminating glare and night vision
problems associated with older generation lasers.
Clinical
Results
When
it was approved in 2003 as the first new laser in five years, the FDA granted
ALLEGRETTO WAVE® the widest approval range ever initially given to a
new laser for both myopic and hyperopic vision correction. Since then, the
results have been astoundingly positive. ALLEGRETTO WAVE® has been
proven to provide superior clinical results, as shown by the following
statistics:
- At one year after
treatment, more than 93% of patients said they saw at least as well or
better than they had with glasses or contacts before treatment.
- More than 98% of patients
achieved 20/40 vision one year after treatment; 20/40 is the level of
visual acuity required to pass most driving tests.
- Nearly 60% of near-sighted
patients achieved 20/16 vision after one year of treatment.
- Both near- and far-sighted
patients reported an improvement in their reaction to bright lights and
night driving glare after ALLEGRETTO WAVE® treatments. In
addition, near-sighted patients reported an improvement in sensitivity to
light.
- Predictable results are
the norm for the ALLEGRETTO WAVE®. More than 90% of patients
achieve refraction within 1 diopter of their target correction.
A
great source for information about LASIK and questions to ask your physician is
the FDA website and the website of the American Society of Cataract and
Refractive Surgery.
Is
ALLEGRETTO WAVE® Right for Me?
ALLEGRETTO
WAVE® expands the boundaries of candidacy for LASIK. However, there
are certain people who are less than ideal candidates for LASIK and ALLEGRETTO
WAVE®. These patients are encouraged to speak with their doctor to
find the best vision correction option:
- Your age is under 21. In
this case your growth phase has not been fully completed, meaning that
your eyes can still change. In that case LASIK is not a good option.
- You are pregnant or
nursing. Pregnancy causes changes to your hormone system. This can also
cause your vision to change. It is therefore better to wait until your
child is born and you have finished nursing.
- Glaucoma or high blood
pressure
- Keratoconus a corneal
irregularity
- Inflammation of the eye
(uveitis, blepharitis or iritis)
- Herpes simplex that has
infected your eye
- Previous severe injuries
on the eye
- Corneal scars or
infections
- Certain medications
- Unstable refraction
- Other diseases of the eye
such as AMD, diabetic retinopathy, cataract or others
LASIK
is also not recommended for patients with:
- Very large pupils
- Thin corneas
- Dry eye
- Unstable refractive errors
During
the consultation with your doctor, please be sure to mention all medications
you are taking and any medical conditions you have that might affect the
success of laser correction.
For
information regarding the risks and benefits associated with the ALLEGRETTO
WAVE® treatment, please visit www.allegrettowave.com or www.fda.gov.
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