Apparatus for ophthalmological, in particular refractive, laser surgery

Apparatus for ophthalmological, in particular treatment laser surgery, comprising:

• a first radiation source for providing a therapeutic laser beam,
• first beam-guidance system configured to control the location of the therapeutic laser beam over an eye to be treated,
• a camera for recording an image of the eye to be treated,
• an evaluating and control unit evaluating the image data of the camera for the purpose of recognising eye movements,
• an optical-coherence interferometric measuring device configured to measure a depth dimension, in particular a corneal thickness, of the eye, the measuring device including a second radiation source providing a measuring beam and also second beam-guidance system controllable to direct the measuring beam onto the eye,
• wherein the second beam-guidance system includes at least one movably arranged beam-guidance element for changing the beam position of the measuring beam and in that the evaluating and control unit has been set up to control the beam-guidance element in a manner depending on registered eye movements in such a manner that the position of the measuring beam follows the eye movements.

A method of performing ophthalmic surgery, comprising:

• providing a first radiation source operable to generate a first therapeutic laser beam, a second radiation source operable to generate a measuring beam;
• evaluating the position of the eye to be treated;
• directing the measuring beam on to the eye at a first location through a measurement beam guidance arrangement based at least in part on the position of the eye;
• measuring a thickness dimension of at least a portion of the eye at the first location;
• and
• guiding the first therapeutic laser beam on to the eye at the first location through a therapeutic beam guidance arrangement that is separate from the measurement beam guidance arrangement.