Correcting myopic astigmatism with an areal 193 nm excimer laser ablation

A new system to correct symmetric bow-tie myopic astigmatism with the excimer laser using oval apertures for toric ablations is described. Initial results in two patients who had -5.0 and -5.5 diopters of astigmatism after surgery with six-months follow-up showed a reduction of up to 85% with a minimal axial error of two degrees.