Laser eye surgery treatment: What happens during the ReLEx SMILE procedure?

What happens during the ReLEx SMILE procedure?

Well, the patient has a drop of anaesthetic and a drop of antibiotic just before they come into the theatre. The patient bed slides underneath the VisuMax laser and gently guides the patient up towards the docking station. The laser has docks on for about 30 seconds, and it only takes that long to create the planes within the cornea. It’s very, very gentle. It feels like someone gently kissing your eye. There is absolutely no pain, and the patient can maintain vision through the procedure. There are some interesting visual effects and I just talk the patient through that as we’re going. After 30 seconds, the laser releases the eye and we gently guide the patient back towards me, and then I very gently loosen the lenticule, the lens we’ve created within the corneal stroma, and slide that lens out through the tiny keyhole incision.

The whole procedure takes about five minutes and most of that is guiding the slow-moving bed. So it’s just gently guiding the bed, talking to the patient the whole time, 30 seconds of laser and then very gentle manipulation just to slide that lens out and the procedure is complete.