Best Topographer

[Mirror Form]

So if a comprehensive ophthalmologist wanted to buy a topography machine, which one is the best? I used the Pentacam as a resident and that was nice. Is there any good competition?

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[orbitsurgMD]

So if a comprehensive ophthalmologist wanted to buy a topography machine, which one is the best? I used the Pentacam as a resident and that was nice. Is there any good competition?

I thought the Scheimpflug-principle derived technology of the Oculus Pentacam was in a category of its own and was significantly more costly because of that fact (although being German made probably doesn't make it any cheaper either.)

I have heard good things about Nidek's machines.

 

[MstaKing10]

Pentacam is really nice, but also pretty pricey. I think the Orbscan is a high quality machine with a slightly cheaper price tag. Both are a good buy.

 

[bucknut101]

So if a comprehensive ophthalmologist wanted to buy a topography machine, which one is the best? I used the Pentacam as a resident and that was nice. Is there any good competition?

A lot of it depends on what you will use it for. If you plan on doing refractive surgery you will want a machine that can examine the posterior curvature of the cornea to look for subtle evidence of form fruste keratoconus. Both the the Pentacam and Orbscan will be able to do this. The Pentacam is an awesome machine not only capable of basic topography but can acutally image the anterior segment as well. If you can afford it, it definitely is useful.

At my current institution we have a Zeiss Atlas, a placido based topographer. It's relatively cheap compared to the Pentacam and will do pretty much anthing you would need a topographer to do (with the exception of the poserior curvature). It's good for looking for irregular astigmatism, identifying keratoconus, finding tight sutures in PKP's, estimating K's for IOL calcs, etc. There aren't many instances on the cornea service when we didn't get the info we needed from the Atlas.

I think they are all good machines, just depends on what you need if for and how much money you want to spend.

 

[Meibomian SxN]

So if a comprehensive ophthalmologist wanted to buy a topography machine, which one is the best? I used the Pentacam as a resident and that was nice. Is there any good competition?

If you could afford the Pentacam then go for it! If not then the Marco 3D Wave does close to the same at a lower price! Good luck