ABSTRACT
The Russian Nikolay Basov in 1970 using a xenon dimer gas introduced the name excimer laser as an abbreviation of excited dimer. The year 1983 witnessed a global race of developing excimer lasers for refractive use, with the cooperation of Trokel, Munnerlyn, and McDonald on one side in the United States and T. Seiler and his colleagues conducting studies on the other side in Germany. Several ophthalmic authorities had set the benchmark for laser keratorefractive surgery, as the Food and Drug Administration, based on data presented by several evidence-based reviews, defined the correction limitation of excimer laser. Measurement of the anterior corneal surface by C. Scheiner in 1619 set the foundation of refractive surgery depending on the changes in the anterior corneal contour recognized by ophthalmologists. The expectations of refractive surgery had an outstanding shift with the introduction of lasers as a tool for changing the corneal contour.
