Technical Milestones of Medical Technology

The early years of ophthalmic instruments at Carl Zeiss was strongly influenced by the inventions of Allvar Gullstrand. In the early 1900s, he developed the large ophthalmoscope for reflection-free observation of the fundus and, one year later, his famous slit lamp which was subsequently combined with the corneal microscope from Koeppe and Henker. At the beginning of the 1930s, Comberg created a redesigned slit lamp with a compact form and a common swivel axis for the microscope and illumination. It represented the pinnacle of all modern slit lamps. Ongoing developments influenced by Hans Littmann lead to a slit lamp featuring a Galilean magnification changer and swivel-mounted slit lamp projector in 1950.

Further important innovations included the fundus camera (1955), the photocoagulator devised by Gerhard Meyer-Schwickerath (1957) for the treatment of retinal detachment and the Ophthalmic Workstation (1985). The firm Humphrey, which now belongs to Carl Zeiss Meditec, launched the Field  Analyzer (HFA) on the market in 1984. After German reunification, the IOLMaster for the precise and non-contact measurement of the eye prior to cataract surgery was presented in 1999. The MEL 80 excimer laser in 2003 was the first refractive laser system to be developed under the roof of Carl Zeiss.

The history of microsurgery instruments from Carl Zeiss began in 1953 with the OPMI® 1, the first surgical microscope. It was developed together with leading surgeons Horst Wullstein and Heinrich Harms. The concept was a complete success and the system was increasingly used in operating rooms. Carl Zeiss continually modified the system to meet the requirements of the users. In 1965, the OPMI® was fitted with an optical beam splitter for co-observation. The OPMI® 2, the first zoom microscope with 5x zoom system, was developed just a year later. The innovations of the 1970s and 1980s include a 5x zoom system with continuous magnification, wide-angle optics and a voice control system. The OPMI® Lumera 700 is setting standards in ophthalmolic surgery.

Carl Zeiss has been producing many microsurgery systems since 1990 in addition to the OPMI. The EndoLive® 3D video laparoscope has been used for minimally invasive surgery since 1993. Ten years later marked the start of INTRABEAM® which enables intraoperative radiotherapy and radio surgery.