Femtosecond Laser Assisted Lenticule Extraction Principles, Techniques, Complication Management, and Future Concepts in KLEx

Walter Sekundo is a University Professor and Chairman at the Department of Ophthalmology, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany. He studied Medicine in Mainz and Frankfurt (Germany) as well as New Orleans and Durham (USA). He took his first postdoctoral fellowship in Ocular Pathology with Prof. W.R. Lee at the University of Glasgow (UK). He continued his ophthalmology residency training at the University of Bonn (Germany) and became a board-certified ophthalmologist in 1996. In 1997 he joined the Faculty at the University of Marburg as Junior Consultant and then took a Corneal and Refractive Fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital (London/UK) under Mr. J. Stevens. After returning to Marburg he successfully defended his PhD Thesis in 2001 and became a Leading Consultant and Deputy Chairman. Here, he received the training in vitreoretinal surgery. He was entitled Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology in 2006. In the autumn of 2006 he moved to the University of Mainz (Germany) to serve as a Professor and Deputy Chairman where he improved his skills in glaucoma surgery. In 2008 he returned to Marburg as Chairman, where he takes teaching, research and clinical responsibilities.  As an ophthalmic surgeon, Professor Sekundo has performed over 30,000 procedures, including refractive, cataract and corneal cases, glaucoma surgery, and vitreoretinal procedures. In 2022 Focus magazine ranked him for the thirteenth time in a row as one of Germany’s leading corneal, cataract, and refractive surgeons. Professor Sekundo has published more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and 43 book chapters. He edited the first international textbook on SMILE surgery. He has delivered over 700 presentations at national and international meetings and is also an editorial board member of Die Ophthalmologie . He has twice received the prestigious Leonhard Klein Award from the German Ophthalmological Society for the development of new surgical procedures in Ophthalmology, among them the Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE) for the treatment of myopia, for which he received the prize jointly with Prof. M. Blum of Erfurt. He also received the 1 ^st video prize from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons in 2008 and from the Video Refrattiva (Italy) in 2009. His latest research focused on corneal biomechanics after Laser Vision correction as well as treatment of hyperopia and presbyopia. 

Felix Mathias Wagner is a consultant at the Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, who specializes in laser vision correction. He studied Medicine at the Ruperto Carola University Heidelberg and received his doctorate there in 2019. Dr. Wagner completed his ophthalmology residency at the University Medical Center Mainz, became a Board-Certified Ophthalmologist and a fellow of the European Board of Ophthalmology (FEBO) in 2022. He underwent his clinical fellowship in refractive surgery with Professor Sekundo at the Philipps University of Marburg from 2021 to 2022. Dr. Wagner has published over 20 original papers.