Zeiss Surpasses 8 Million Eyes Treated with SMILE Worldwide

Zeiss announced that more than 8 million eyes have been treated with Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE) globally to date. The FDA approved the VisuMax Femtosecond Laser for the SMILE procedure in 2016. 

“Zeiss SMILE is a game-changer for laser vision correction that redefines refractive surgery and we are thrilled that SMILE has reached this important milestone,” Dirk Muehlhoff, Head of Refractive Lasers at Zeiss Medical Technology, said in a company news release. “We are excited to see SMILE so widely accepted by doctors and their patients, and to know that SMILE has helped doctors improve vision for so many people around the world.”

SMILE is performed using the VisuMax femtosecond laser which creates a thin disc-shaped lenticule within the cornea for a minimally invasive corneal refractive procedure. The lenticule is then removed through a small incision, thereby achieving the desired vision correction. SMILE requires only one laser to perform the entire solution leaving the outer corneal layer largely intact, thus potentially contributing to the cornea's biomechanical and refractive stability after surgery.