Implementation of Simulated Corneal Surface for Investigation of Laser Surgery

More than a million cases of LASIK (Laserassisted in situ keratomileusis) surgery are performed each year around the world. These cases need to be validated and followed up to ensure the outcomes fitting both safely and clinically. The suggested work here, built a simulated disk to assist the ophthalmic surgeon to predict the results upon the real cornea prior to the surgery. The work procedure started by selecting the thermoplastic transparent material manufactured from Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in a disk shape as an artificial cornea. This PMMA disk will be reshaped by using a CNC milling machine to simulate the real human corneal profile with (8, 25, and 30) mm radius of curvature for experimental work. The simulated cornea (in flat and spherical disk shapes) was tested using an excimer laser of ultraviolet radiation at a wavelength of 193 nm and 400 Hz, after setting this LASIK system to specific clinical arrangements. During the laser shots the IR camera was used to record the temperature profile to understand the effect of the laser upon it. Significant differences between flat and spherical models have been deducted. The flat surface is more suitable for hyperopia simulation, while the spherical surface is a suitable model for myopic estimation. The accuracy of the theoretical and experimental results of the spherical surface model of the cornea is 91.4%.