Dr Parikh is a corneal surgeon who is a San Diego LASIK Surgery specialist. He stays on the cutting edge of new LASIK and refractive surgery technology.

IntraLase San Diego, New Precision for Laser Vision Correction
IntraLase LASIK surgery provides an All LASER LASIK procedure with no blade. The ultrafast laser separates the surface of the cornea and creates the "corneal flap" without using a blade, as when using a conventional microkeratome. This procedure was developed by researchers from the University of Michigan who are colleagues of Dr Max Parikh, the premiere San Diego LASIK Eye Surgery surgeon of the Advanced Ophthalmology Institute.

About IntraLase
Researchers at the Kellogg Eye Center and the College of Engineering have developed a new, ultrafast laser that makes clean, high-precision surgical cuts in the human cornea - the first step in the popular LASIK vision correction surgery. Because it is more precise than the mechanical blade surgeons now use, it is expected to reduce complications associated with LASIK. Use of the laser for cutting the LASIK flap received food and drug administration approval earlier this year.

"Although useful in treating several eye diseases, current commercial lasers are not able to cut or remove tissue without disrupting the eye's delicate superficial tissues, which can cause significant inflammation and scarring," say Ron Kurtz, M.D., an assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences in the U-M Medical School.

Light pulses produced by the laser are so short and intense they are measured in femtoseconds or millionths of a billionth of a second. This enables eye surgeons to make extremely precise cuts with far less damage to adjacent tissue than is possible with current LASIK surgery technology.

Kurtz and Tibor Juhasz, Ph.D. an associate professor of biomedical engineering, co-founded IntraLase Corporation to commercialize the new laser with support from the National Science Foundation, The NIH National Eye Institute, and the Department of Defense.

Femtosecond laser technology of ophthalmic applications was developed at the University of Michigan Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, and the Kellogg Eye Center. The research team is now exploring the possibility of extending this technique to other eye procedures - such as corneal transplants or glaucoma treatment.

Others involved in development of the new, ultrafast laser include Gerard A. Mourou, Ph.D., the A.D. Moore Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, who directs the Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences in the University of Michigan College of Engineering; and Paul R. Lichter, M.D., the F.Bruce Fralick Professor of Ophthalmology and director of the Kellogg Eye Center.

- Article courtesy of Randall Wallach

Dr. Kurtz and Dr. Parikh are friends and colleagues. They both trained at the University of Michigan Medical School. Both doctors currently work in Southern California and have re-established their professional relationship.