METHOD OF RAPIDLY RESHAPING THE CORNEA TO ELIMINATE REFRACTIVE ERRORS

• US 3,776,230 A
• Filed: 04/18/1973
• Issued: 12/04/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Charles W. Neefe
• Original Assignee: Charles W. Neefe
• Inventors: Neefe, Charles W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Medbery, Aldrich F.
• Application Number:
  US05/352,227
• Time in Patent Office: 230 Days
• Field of Search: 128/260,261,249,82.1,90 351/162
• US Class Current: 604/291
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/0017 implantable in, or in contact with, the eye, e.g. ocular inserts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/013 Instruments for compensation of ocular refraction A61F9/008 takes precedence; Instruments for use in cornea removal, for reshaping or performing incisions in the cornea
• CPC Class Codes: A61K 9/0051 Ocular inserts, ocular implants

Abstract

A method of correcting refractive errors of the eye by changing the shape of the cornea by softening the corneal tissue by the application of heat and reshaping the convex cornea to the curvature of the surface of a concave mold applied to the cornea.

Claims

1. A method of making the eye emmetropic by reshaping the cornea comprising the step of providing a concave mold having a preselected central concave radius said concave radius being equal to the convex radius required on the cornea to render the eye emmetropic and a peripheral curvature substantially equal to the peripheral corneal curvature applying said mold to the cornea, heating the mold and the cornea to shape the cornea to a convex curvature equal to the concave curvature present on the concave mold, the resulting curvature of the cornea being the curvature required to make the eye emmetropic.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the said mold and cornea are heated by infrared radiation.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein the concave mold is made of metal.

4. A method as in claim 1 wherein the concave mold is heated before being placed on the cornea.

5. A method as in claim 1 wherein the concave mold is heated after being placed on the cornea.

6. A method as in claim 1 wherein selected non-permanent cornea softening chemical compounds are applied to the cornea.

7. A method as in claim 1 wherein the said concave mold has a central transparent segment of a preselected concave radius and a plano or zero refractive power.

8. A method as in claim 1 wherein the mold material is permeable to oxygen and carbon dioxide.

9. A method as in claim 1 wherein preselected non-permanent cornea softening chemical compounds are applied within the peripheral segment of the concave mold and the release rate of said compounds from the mold to the eye is controlled.