Small Incision Lenticule Extraction

Small incision lenticule extraction, known as SMILE, is a form of laser-based refractive eye surgery developed by Carl Zeiss Meditec as the second generation of the ReLEx femtosecond lenticule extraction technique. A femtosecond laser cuts a thin, lens-shaped piece of tissue, called a lenticule, from within the corneal stroma according to the patient's prescription, and the surgeon removes it through a small incision of about 4 millimeters, compared with the roughly 20 millimeter incision LASIK requires to create its corneal flap. Because SMILE does not create a large flap, it mostly preserves the cornea's Bowman's layer. The procedure was first presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology's annual meeting in 2006 by Walter Sekundo and Marcus Blum, with the first published efficacy and safety study following in 2008 and a further study by Sekundo and colleagues in 2011. It is used to correct myopia and, in some countries, astigmatism, though in the United States it is currently approved only for nearsightedness.