Forefront Refractive Surgery Course Overview

The aim of this course is to provide corneal refractive surgeons who are interested in starting or are already performing LASIK, PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision and small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) with a detailed description of all aspects of the three procedures.

The focus of the course will be on practical details and surgical pearls set against the backdrop of our experience of over 30,000 LASIK, 12,000 PRESBYOND and 10,000 SMILE procedures and research. Essentially, we consider this to be a surgical video-fellowship that enables the attendee to learn from complications as well as successes. Each aspect of the course is taught in granular detail so that the attendee will feel very well equipped to make improvements to their current practice or starting to perform LASIK, PRESBYOND and SMILE with a wide knowledge base to reduce the learning curve.

To read more about the previous Forefront of Refractive surgery courses on SMILE, PRESBYOND and LASIK click here.

Accreditation

The Forefront Refractive Surgery Course: LASIK, Presbyopia Correction & SMILE, London, United Kingdom, 8-11 May 2025 (and online) has been accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME®) with 26 European CME credits (ECMEC®s).

Each medical specialist should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity.

Through an agreement between the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes and the American Medical Association, physicians may convert EACCME® credits to an equivalent number of AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Information on the process to convert EACCME® credit to AMA credit can be found at www.ama-assn.org/education/earn-credit-participation-international-activities.

Live educational activities, occurring outside of Canada, recognised by the UEMS-EACCME® for ECMEC®s are deemed to be Accredited Group Learning Activities (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Faculty

• Dan Z Reinstein, MD, MA(Cantab), FRCSC, DABO, FRCOphth, PGDipCRS, CertLRS
• Glenn I Carp, MBBCh, FC Ophth (SA), PGDipCRS, CertLRS
• Timothy J Archer, MA(Oxon), DipCompSci(Cantab), PhD
• Darshak Patel, MBBS, MSc, FRCOphth, CertLRS
• Ruchi Gupta, MOptom

Photos by Arvinder Marwaha (www.arvinder.photography)

Course Outline (Live course)

Thursday May 8, 2025, 9am-7pm: Expert considerations on LASIK and surface procedures (Module 1)

1. The importance of standardization
2. Patient and laser preparation, hypnothesis
3. LASIK flap creation
4. Surgical technique for a routine LASIK procedure
5. Prevention and management of microfolds
6. Management of epithelial ingrowth
7. Summary of intraoperative complications
8. Summary of postoperative complications
9. Routine retreatment options after LASIK
10. Surface ablation procedures

Thursday May 8, 2025, 7pm-9pm: Welcome drinks and dinner

Friday May 9, 2025, 9am-7pm: Treatment of presbyopia in the absence of cataract (Module 2)

1. Concept and mechanism of PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision
2. Review and comparison of available treatment options for presbyopia
3. Manifest refraction and binocular balance protocol
4. Modified binocular vision tolerance testing protocol
5. Postoperative management, counselling, and adaptation
6. Lifetime corneal retreatment planning and retreatment technique
7. Considerations for cataract surgery maximising spectacle independence by EDoF

Saturday May 10, 2025, 9am-7pm: The surgeon’s guide to SMILE (Module 3)

1. Treatment planning and parameter selection for SMILE
2. Docking, centration and cyclotorsion control
3. Surgical technique for a routine SMILE procedure
4. Energy and spot spacing settings
5. Suction stability management (suction loss and eye movements)
6. Management of false planes
7. Management of intraoperative complications
8. Management of postoperative complications
9. Routine retreatment options after SMILE

Saturday May 10, 2025, 7pm-late: Social evening

Sunday May 11, 2025, 9am-2pm: Additional Lectures and Workshops (Module 4)

1. Preoperative assessment
2. Epithelial thickness mapping for keratoconus screening
3. Dry eye assessment and management
4. Accuracy and repeatability considerations in LASIK
5. Outcomes analysis and nomogram development
6. SMILE wet lab (1 hour workshop) [this activity is not EACCME accredited]
7. Manifest refraction protocol (1 hour workshop)
8. Q&A (1 hour workshop)

Handout Including

1. Complimentary copy of The Surgeon’s Guide to SMILE – our textbook including video website with 16 hours of narrated content (if attending the course live)
2. PDFs of all lectures
3. Book chapters, peer-viewed publications, and ophthalmic press articles
4. Other resources including protocols and calculators

In-Person 4-day Course, May 2025 (live in London):

• Ophthalmologist £2,500
• Optometrist £1,700
• Trainee ophthalmologist £800

Includes complimentary copy of The Surgeon’s Guide to SMILE

Members of the Refractive Surgery Alliance (RSA) receive a 10% discount.

Repeat attendees receive a 50% discount.

Trainee ophthalmologists receive a 60% discount.

Feedback:

We are privileged to say that we often receive feedback that this was “the best course I have ever attended in my career.” For a previous course held in June 2020, 85% of delegates rated the course content as excellent: