How Does Allegretto Wave Compare to Other Laser Eye Options in Terms of Effectiveness?

We use both the Allegretto Wavelight and the VISX platforms.  Each laser has its advantages and disadvantages and no one laser is best for all patients.  The Allegretto is wavefront optimized but has a much faster laser with a smaller spot size.  The VISX is wavefront customized and provides iris registration but the laser spot size is larger and the firing rate is slower.  A skilled surgeon might prefer one laser of the other in different circumstances but each has its advantages.  

The Alllegretto laser is wavefront optimized rather than wavefront guided which means that it uses a highly sophisticated standard treatment rather than a custom treatment generated for each individual eye. 

 

Theoretically, a true custom treatment such as the VISX might be slightly better, but most studies show them to actually be very comparable.  One advantage of the Allegretto is that it can treat very high levels of astigmatism.

I have used most of the lasers available on the market and of the modern lasers, I believe that the Visx laser wtih WaveFront is the best.  The Allegretto laser is a good laser, but in my experience there are definite advantages to WaveFront technology.  The Allegretto laser treats every person with the same prescription and corneal curvature exactly the same.  With the Visx WaveFront system, every treatment is unique to that patient and is as distinct as is your finger print.