passed on to the patient, and some may be leased depending on the
vendor. You'll also want to consider the size of your facility — if you
have 2 ORs, are you buying 2 machines? Or will you just have 1 OR
where all premium cases are performed? Again, the answer changes
on a facility-by-facility basis.
Also consider surgeon preference. While these new technologies are
extremely helpful for young surgeons or those who are new to refractive
8 4
O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M A R C H 2 0 1 5
I
f expensive corneal marking tools like intraoperative
aberrometry or image-guided systems aren't in
your budget, consider a free iPhone app
called Axis Assistant that marks the axis
of implantation of a toric
intraocular lens or any
corneal procedure where
it's necessary to determine
the axis. You place the patient's
necessary biometry readings into the
app, which then helps you determine the axis of
the toric IOL. Then you take your iPhone and sit it in front of the slit lamp and align
the slit with the axis shown on the iPhone. You can then mark the cornea using your
preferred method. It uses the rotating slit of a slit lamp to match the desired axis
while looking through the biomicroscope. The app is also useful for measuring the
post-operative axis to assess whether there's any difference between the planned
meridian vs. the achieved meridian. There's also an arc feature to use on situations
where an arc is necessary, such as in intracorneal segments, corneal arcuate incisions
and limbal-relaxing incisions. — Kendal Gapinski
Download the free Axis Assistant at tinyurl.com/qjgvzzm.
Free App Helps Mark Cornea For Toric IOL Placement
SMARTPHONES + ASTIGMATISM
z ASTIGMATISM APP
Axis Assistant is a free app for your
iPhone designed to help you mark
the cornea to implant toric IOLs.
