A UNIVERSAL IMPLANT BLANK FOR MODIFYING CORNEAL CURVATURE AND METHODS OF MODIFYING CORNEAL CURVATURE THEREWITH

摘要

This invention is a universally sized blank(18) made of organic or synthetic material thatcan be placed on an exposed inner surface of alive cornea and ablated with a laser beam (27)to be altered to a particular shape. A flap-likeportion of the live cornea is removed to expose aninner surface of the cornea, and the blank (18) ispositioned on the exposed inner surface of the eye.A laser beam (27) is directed onto certain portionsof the blank (18) that are selected based on the typeof ametropic condition (i.e., myopia, hyperopia orastigmatism) of the eye needing correction, so thatthe laser beam (27) ablates those portions, and thusreshapes the blank. The laser beam (27) can alsobe directed onto certain portions of the laser surfaceof the cornea to ablate those surfaces of the cornea. The flap-like portion ofthe cornea is repositioned over the remaining portion of theblank (18), so that the remaining portion of the blank (18) influences theshape of the reattached flap-like portion of the cornea and thusmodifies the curvature of the cornea.