A first image of the eye is generated when the cornea of the eye is exposed to a gas. The cornea is covered with an optic of a patient interface. A second image of the eye with the patient interface over the cornea is generated. In this second image, the patient interface distorts the second image of the eye. One or more of a position or an orientation of the eye is determined in response to the first image and the second image when the patient interface has been placed over the cornea.

A method of cataract surgery in an eye of a patient includes identifying a feature selected from the group consisting of an axis, a meridian, and a structure of an eye by corneal topography and forming fiducial mark incisions with a laser beam along the axis, meridian or structure in the cornea outside the optical zone of the eye. A laser cataract surgery system a laser source, a topography measurement system, an integrated optical subsystem, and a processor in operable communication with the laser source, corneal topography subsystem and the integrated optical system. The processor includes a tangible non-volatile computer readable medium comprising instructions to determine one of an axis, meridian and structure of an eye of the patient based on the measurements received from topography measurement system, and direct the treatment beam so as to incise radial fiducial mark incisions.

Modular IOL removal systems and methods that cut an optic portion of an intraocular in a single motion such to facilitate removal of the optic portion from an eye through an incision, for example a corneal incision, without increasing the size of the corneal incision. Various cutting tools having one or more blades may be utilized. The cut intraocular lens may have one continuous cut or be cut into multiple smaller pieces. The single cutting step may apply balanced forces and torque to avoid damaging the surrounding eye anatomy, reducing the risk of trauma.

A device for cutting human or animal tissue including a femtosecond laser that can emit a L.A.S.E.R. beam in the form of impulses. The device directs and focuses the beam onto or into the tissue for the cutting thereof. The device further includes and element to shape the L.A.S.E.R. beam, positioned in the trajectory of the beam, and to modulate the energy distribution of the L.A.S.E.R. beam in the focal plane thereof, corresponding to the cutting plane.

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 present invention relates to a cutting device comprising: a laser source (1) for emitting an initial laser beam (11) in the form of pulses, a shaping system (2) positioned downstream of the femtosecond laser (1), for transforming the initial laser beam (11) into a single phase-modulated laser beam, an optical coupler (3) between the laser source (1) and the shaping system (2), the optical coupler (3) including an optical fibre (31), remarkable in that the cutting device further comprises a polarisation corrector (7) for modifying the polarisation of the initial laser beam (11) at an input end of the optical coupler (3) such that the polarisation of the laser beam at an output end of the optical coupler (3) corresponds to a desired reference polarisation.

An ophthalmological laser therapy positioning device which facilitates accurate positioning of the laser therapy system vis-à-vis the patient's eye. The positioning device includes a first and a second recording unit, which provide recording data from different recording directions, a displacement unit that displaces the relative position of the eye vis-à-vis an optical opening of the laser therapy system on the basis of control commands, and a control unit that generates control commands on the basis of the recording data. The positioning device furthermore may include a display unit for displaying the recording data and an input unit for inputting input data, the control unit in this case generates control commands on the basis of the recording data and/or on the basis of the input data and to provide the control commands to the displacement unit. Corresponding positioning methods are also included.

A laser system including a laser source that generates a laser beam and an optical switch that receives the laser beam and selectively sends the laser beam to either a fast path or a slow path, wherein in the fast path the laser beam has a first F/# and in the slow path the laser beam has a second F/# that is higher in value that of the first F/#. The laser system further including an afocal optical system that is in the slow path and receives the laser beam from the optical switch and an x-y scanner that receives either a first laser beam from the slow path or a second laser beam from the fast path. The laser system including a scan lens system that receives a scanning laser beam from the x-y scanner and performs a z-scan for the scanning laser beam only in the case wherein the scanning laser beam is generated from the laser beam in the fast path. The laser system further including an aspheric patient interface device that receives a laser beam from the scan lens system.

A method for detecting structures within an optical element of an eye and processing the optical element as a function of the detected structures includes acquiring, by a detection device, geometric data of an eye, transferring, by the detection device, the geometric data of the eye to a controller, calculating, by the controller, target coordinates for a processing device including a laser, the processing device being connected to the controller, and applying a beam produced by the laser to the eye according to the target coordinates calculated by the controller so as to process the optical element.

Cataract surgery is in recent years more and more augmented and supported by the application of laser cuts in the eye tissue. Such laser systems are separate units from the phacoemulsification system units that are usually used for cataract extraction. The laser systems require the patient to be positioned under the laser unit and then being moved under the surgical microscope next to the phacoemulsification unit. The here described invention relates to systems combining several aspects of the laser system and the phacoemulsification system. In particular, this invention relates to combining at least some parts of the control system and the housing for both systems and thereby minimizing and optimizing setup time, operating room footprint, patient flow and cost. Furthermore the here disclosed invention relates to integrating the laser system under the surgical microscope and thereby significantly reducing the surgery setup and complexity.