Eye Site of Tampa Bay, one of the leading comprehensive ophthalmology practices in the Tampa Bay area, announced today they now offer laser assisted eye surgery for cataracts and cornea with an advanced femtosecond laser platform. Eye Site now has the newest and most technologically advanced femtosecond laser in the Tampa Bay area.
“With laser assisted surgery, we are able to automate some of the steps that we have commonly performed manually,” said Dr. Herbert P. Knauf, President and CEO of Eye Site of Tampa Bay. “While we have performed thousands of successful cataract and cornea surgeries, the femtosecond laser helps us to improve the precision of these procedures to give our patients the best outcomes possible.”
Eye surgeons Dr. Knauf and Dr. Sheets are able to provide their patients with the most comfort during their procedure due to the sophisticated features of the femtosecond laser, a curved patient interface with computer-monitored pressure sensors. The laser itself has a rapid pulse rate that allows the portion of the cataract or cornea procedure performed with the laser to be completed in just a few seconds.
“Eye Site is proud to offer the femtosecond laser to patients at both of our locations in Pinellas and Pasco Counties,” said Dr. Clinton W. Sheets, Vice President of Eye Site of Tampa Bay. “Laser assisted cataract surgery enhances our ability to offer the latest, most advanced surgical techniques to our cataract patients and give them the results this community has come to expect from us.”
Offering the latest advancements in laser eye surgery is just one of the many innovative changes occurring at Eye Site of Tampa Bay. Earlier this year, Eye Site’s Clearwater location moved into a new facility on the Northwest corner of Gulf to Bay Boulevard and US Highway 19. This relocation and expansion offers more convenience and six additional patient rooms to meet the high demands for ophthalmology and optometry in the Tampa Bay area.
About Cataract Surgery
A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens in the eye. An estimated 20 million aging American baby boomers and seniors have cataracts. Each year, approximately 1.5 million people will have cataract surgery in the United States, making it one of the most common surgical procedures. According to the National Eye Institute, it is also one of the safest and most effective. Worldwide, over 20 million cataract surgeries are performed annually. Cataract surgery is a procedure during which the natural lens in the patient’s eye is surgically replaced with an intraocular lens (IOL).
About Femtosecond Lasers
Femtosecond lasers emit optical pulses of extremely short duration in the domain of femtoseconds, as short as one-quadrillionth of a second. These ultra-short pulses do not transfer heat or shock to the material being cut and can make surgical incisions with extreme precision. The technology was developed in the early 1990s at the University of Michigan Engineering Center. The first commercial platform was introduced in 2002, and the original approval was for flap creation during LASIK surgery. Recent platform approvals have been expanded to include additional corneal/therapeutic procedures and cataract applications.