ALLEGRETTO WAVE is capable of producing some of the largest available optical zones. The optical zone refers to the portion of the cornea that has been corrected by the laser. A larger optical zone is especially important for night vision, and for patients with very large pupils. If a patient’s pupil is larger than the optical zone, they may experience poor peripheral vision, poor night vision, and a higher than normal incidence of “halos” and glare. In the past, this has been one of the biggest drawbacks to conventional laser correction surgery. Wavefront-optimized technology built into ALLEGRETTO WAVE addresses this limitation.
At night and in dark conditions, the pupil becomes larger to permit the maximum amount of light to enter the eye. Laser eye correction needs to take this fact into account. If the optical zone is smaller than the size of the pupil at its largest, there is a good chance that the patient will experience poor night vision or problems with glare and halos around bright objects such as oncoming headlights. ALLEGRETTO WAVE is able to produce a larger optical zone, virtually eliminating glare and night vision problems associated with older generation lasers.