Importance

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Abstract

A surgical knife blade includes a cutting blade for penetrating tissue of the eye. First indicia is carried on the cutting blade proximally spaced from a tip thereof for being aligned with an external surface of the tissue when the cutting blade is inserted tip first in the tissue to form an initial incision having a depth equal to the distance that the first indicia is spaced proximally from the tip. The cutting edge is configured to form a subsurface tunnel within the thickness of the tissue when the cutting blade is moved from the initial incision along a plane transverse to the plane of the initial incision. Second indicia is carried on the blade proximally spaced from the tip for being aligned relative to the initial incision to gauge the length of the subsurface tunnel. A method of making sutureless incisions in the eye includes the steps of inserting the knife blade in the tissue along a plane transverse to the tissue to form the initial incision, aligning the first indicia with the external surface to obtain a depth for the initial incision equal to the distance that the first indicia is spaced from the tip, moving the knife blade from the initial incision along a plane transverse to a plane of the initial incision to form the subsurface tunnel, aligning the second indicia relative to the initial incision to gauge the length of the tunnel and making a second incision from the tunnel through the tissue along a plane transverse to the plane of the tunnel.

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First Claim