A method of phacoemulsification includes dissecting a lens tissue of an eye into lens fragments, opening an anterior capsule of the lens of the eye, and placing an access incision in the eye using a femto- or picosecond laser. The method further includes subsequently aspirating lens fragments through the access incision. Lens fragments that impede aspiration due to their size are disintegrated using an ablating laser, and the disintegrated fragments are subsequently aspirated.

Apparatus to treat an eye comprises an annular retention structure to couple to an anterior surface of the eye. The retention structure is coupled to a suction line to couple the retention structure to the eye with suction. A coupling sensor is coupled to the retention structure or the suction line to determine coupling of the retention structure to the eye. A fluid collecting container can be coupled to the retention structure to receive and collect liquid or viscous material from the retention structure. A fluid stop comprising a porous structure can be coupled to an outlet of the fluid collecting container to inhibit passage of the liquid or viscous material when the container has received an amount of the liquid or viscous material. The coupling sensor can be coupled upstream of the porous structure to provide a rapid measurement of the coupling of the retention structure to the eye.

A method for creating cuts in a transparent material using optical radiation, the optical radiation being focused onto the material in a focal point and the focal point being shifted along a curve: A simple or double harmonic curve is used when seen at a right angle to a main direction of incidence of the radiation and preferably successively traveled curves do not lie on top of each other.

Additive manufacturing techniques are used to form an artificial intra-ocular lens (IOL) directly inside the human eye. Small openings are formed in the cornea and lens capsule of the eye, and the crystalline lens is broken up and removed through the openings; then, a material is injected into the lens capsule through the openings, and the focal spot of a pulse laser beam is scanned in a defined pattern in the lens capsule, to transform the material in the vicinity of the laser focal spot to form the IOL in a layer-by-layer manner. In one embodiment, stereolithography techniques are used where a pulse UV laser source is used to photosolidify a photopolymer resin. The liquefied resin is injected into the eye through the openings, after which only part of the resin, having the shape of the desired IOL, is selectively cured with the UV laser beam, via progressive layer formation.

Provided are systems and methods for correcting a corneal surface irregularity surface in a subject. The system generally comprises a infrared laser, for example, and infrared laser and a laser control unit, a corneal contacting unit, a gel solidifying unit and an electronic device tangibly storing algorithms to operate the units. In the methods, a polymerizable or thermo-reversible gel or polymerized resin is applied to the anterior corneal surface and solidified as a layer over the cornea. A first correcting cut is lasered into the stroma of an applanated cornea, the gel layer is then removed and a second correcting cut is lasered in the stroma of the applanated cornea. The lenticel formed intrastromaly by the first and second correcting cuts is removed such that the cornea has a corrected corneal curvature.

An ophthalmological laser therapy device having a pulsed laser, a positioning system and a control system that produce incisions in a tissue of an eye, in particular for producing corneal access incisions and a corresponding method. The invention produces corneal access incisions having increased leak tightness under external influences. Compressive strength, and complex incision geometries can be realized. An ophthalmological laser therapy device has a control system which is programmed to vary the operating parameters of the laser system and/or of the positioning system on the basis of a local position of the focal volume of a laser beam in the corneal tissue such that the access incision in the corneal tissue is varied and/or interrupted in the width of the access incision. The invention further includes a corresponding computer program product and a method for performing a corneal access incision in a corneal tissue of an eye.

An apparatus, such as lenses, a system and a method for providing custom ocular aberrations that provide higher visual acuity. The apparatus, system and method include inducing rotationally symmetric aberrations along with an add power in one eye and inducing non-rotationally symmetric aberrations along with an add power in the other eye to provide improved visual acuity at an intermediate distance.

Methods and apparatus are configures to measure an eye without contacting the eye with a patient interface, and these measurements are used to determine alignment and placement of the incisions when the patient interface contacts the eye. The pre-contact locations of one or more structures of the eye can be used to determine corresponding post-contact locations of the one or more optical structures of the eye when the patient interface has contacted the eye, such that the laser incisions are placed at locations that promote normal vision of the eye. The incisions are positioned in relation to the pre-contact optical structures of the eye, such as an astigmatic treatment axis, nodal points of the eye, and visual axis of the eye.

The here described invention generally relates to systems for laser eye surgery. It certain embodiments it discloses systems to perform femtosecond eye surgery without docking between the laser delivery system and the patient's eye as well as certain laser delivery system configurations that allow integration of laser delivery systems into a surgical microscope in specific ways, as well as integration into a slit lamp system.

The invention relates to systems and methods for delivering highly focused photodisruptive laser pulses with pulse durations <50 picoseconds into the anterior chamber angle region of an eye, creating channels into various anatomical structures within the anterior angle of the eye and thereby facilitating aqueous outflow for the treatment of Glaucoma. The invention includes novel gonioscopy lens systems, patient interface systems and laser delivery systems to deliver such focused laser beams to the anterior angle area and other areas of the eye.