Equipment and methods for refractive surgery, including for keratoplasty. The invention describes equipment and methods for the production and implantation of a lamella of a tissue or material for the purpose of correcting a corneal geometry at maximum precision that is thus improved in relation to the prior art. The invention facilitates restoration of normal corneal geometry together with optical functionality of the cornea which is improved in relation to the prior art. A planning device, a treatment system and a planning method are designed to couple a device coordinate systems of the laser devices involved and characterization devices by application of registration and to uniquely register the supplied measurement data for generating the lamella to be implanted to the device coordinate systems by a specific, defined edge geometry of a blank from which the lamella is produced, and by the lamella, and by additional system and method aids.

An ophthalmological device for processing a curved treatment face in eye tissue comprises a scanner system with a plurality of scan axes configured to move the focal spot to target locations in the eye tissue. A circuit is configured control the scanner system to move the focal spot to target locations along a processing path, defined by treatment control data, to process the curved treatment face in the eye tissue. The circuit is further configured to perform a feasibility check, using the treatment control data and scan capabilities of the scanner system, defined by scan performance characteristics of each particular scan axis. In case the feasibility check indicates that moving the focal spot along the processing path exceeds the scan capabilities of the scanner system, the circuit adjusts the treatment control data.

For processing eye tissue using a pulsed laser beam (L), an ophthalmological device includes a projection optical unit for the focused projection of the laser beam (L) into the eye tissue, and a scanner system upstream of the projection optical unit for the beam-deflecting scanning of the eye tissue with the laser beam (L) in a scanning movement (s′) performed over a scanning angle along a scanning line(s). The projection optical unit is tilted about an axis of rotation (q) running perpendicularly to a plane defined by the scanning line(s) and the optical axis (o) of the projection optical unit, the tilting of the projection optical unit tilting the scanning line (s) in said plane. Tilting of the scanning line(s) enables a displacement—dependent on the scanning angle—of the focus of the laser pulses projected into the eye tissue without vertical displacement of the projection optical unit.

For the purposes of working on eye tissue, an ophthalmological apparatus comprises a laser source that is configured to produce a pulsed laser beam, a focusing optical unit that is configured to focus the pulsed laser beam into the eye tissue, a scanner system for deflecting the pulsed laser beam onto work target points in the eye tissue, and a measurement system for optically capturing structures in the eye tissue. A circuit controls the measurement system in such a way that the latter captures a cut first outer face of a lenticule to be cut. The circuit controls the scanner system in such a way that the latter guides the pulsed laser beam onto work target points on a second outer face, positioned in relation to the captured first outer face, of the lenticule to be cut, in order to cut the second outer face of the lenticule.

An ultraviolet laser-based (UVL) laser vision correction (LVC) system, a contact interface and a contact interface system for such a UVL-LVC system. The invention facilitates a coupling and affixation between the patient's eye and the UVL-LVC system by application of a contact interface for the purposes of preventing eye movements when using UVL-LVC systems. The invention includes a UVL-LVC system with a base unit and an application arm which has a contact interface adapter on an application part of the application arm, to which a contact interface is affixable, the contact interface being usable to be to affix a patient's eye to the UVL-LVC system. The contact interface may have a conical wall and a suction ring but not a lens element, and optionally has an access opening or a corresponding contact interface system made of a contact interface adapter and a contact interface.

A method for modifying a refractive property of ocular tissue in an eye by creating at least one optically-modified gradient index (GRIN) layer in the corneal stroma and/or the crystalline by continuously scanning a continuous stream of laser pulses having a focal volume from a laser having a known average power along a continuous line having a smoothly changing refractive index within the tissue, and varying either or both of the scan speed and the laser average power during the scan. The method may further involve determining a desired vision correction adjustment, and determining a position, number, and design parameters of gradient index (GRIN) layers to be created within the ocular tissue to provide the desired vision correction.

A single-piece patient interface device (PI) for coupling an patient's eye to an ophthalmic surgical laser system, which includes a rigid shell, a flexible suction ring joined to a lower edge of the shell, an applanation lens, and a flexible annular diaphragm which joins the applanation lens to the shell near the lower edge of the shell. The flexible diaphragm allows the applanation lens to move relative to the shell, including to shift in longitudinal and lateral directions of the shell and to tilt. In operation, the surgeon first secures the PI to the patient's eye by hand, and then couples the laser system to the PI by lowering the laser delivery head into the PI shell. During the lowering process, the laser delivery head presses the applanation lens down relative to the PI to applanate the cornea of the eye.

An optical device can include: an incident light polarizer positioned to receive incident light and configured to polarize incident light such that polarized incident light is directed to a cornea of a subject; at least one corneal light polarizer, wherein the at least one corneal light polarizer is positioned to receive reflected light from the cornea of the subject and polarize the reflected light to a second polarization; at least one rotating mechanism; and at least one receiver. The receiver can be at least one viewing port optically coupled with the at least one corneal light polarizer or an imaging device (e.g., optical detector). The at least one rotating mechanism is: coupled with the incident light polarizer; coupled with the at least one corneal light polarizer; or coupled with the incident light polarizer and the at least one corneal light polarizer.

A storage/delivery device includes a first wall defining a well configured to receive a corneal tissue. The storage/delivery device includes a second wall configured to be positioned over the first wall and to seal the well. The second wall includes a recess configured to extend into the well to define a chamber between the first wall and the second wall. The chamber is configured to hold the corneal tissue when the second wall seals the well. A system may include the storage/delivery device above and a measurement system configured to measure the corneal tissue disposed in the well. In one example embodiment, the measurement system is an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. In another example embodiment, the measurement system is a second-harmonic generation (SHG) or third-harmonic generation (THG) microscopy system.

A device and a method for the femtosecond laser surgery of tissue, especially in the vitreous humor of the eye. The device includes an ultrashort pulse laser with pulse widths in the range of approximately 10 fs-1 ps, especially approximately 300 fs, pulse energies in the range of approximately 5 nJ-5 μJ, especially approximately 1-2 μJ and pulse repetition rates of approximately 10 kHz-10 MHz, especially 500 kHz. The laser system is coupled to a scanner system which allows the spatial variation of the focus in three dimensions (x, y and z). In addition to the therapeutic laser/scanner optical system, the device includes a navigation system.