An American company has claimed that is has found a way for patients to change the colour of their eyes through a new cosmetic surgery procedure.

Stroma Medical, based in California, has patented a technique that uses a laser beam to change brown eyes to blue in a few weeks. Early trials have shown that patients brown irises changed colour to blue after being exposed to a targeted laser beam.

The cosmetic surgery is not yet available – further human tests are required to check the safety of the procedure and it is understood that some investment is still required to bring the product to market. It is hoped that the eye-colour changing surgery will be available in America in around 18 months time.

Dr Homer, the founder of Stroma Medical, has claimed that there is massive demand for the surgery and they comapny is receiving up to 300 enquiries a day. It is estimated that the surgery will cost around £3,000 to perform.

So how exactly does the iris-colour-changing technology work? The actual details remain a secret however it appears that the technology is similar to the lasers used to remove pigmentation from the skin.

A blue iris is not really blue – it is really an iris without colour and is a trick of perception, much the same as the sea which is not really blue; the ‘colour’ is down to scattered light. So by removing the pigment from a brown iris, the iris turns a blue colour.

Some experts are concerned over the long-term results of the surgery as it is unclear what damage or long-term side effects could be. The laser surgery is also irreverisble – there is currently no permanent way of changing blue eyes back to brown.

Although lasers are already used successfully for laser eye surgery, these lasers only affect the surface of the eye, the cornea. This new treatment to change the colour of the eyes appears to use lasers within the eye – and the more ‘inside’ the eye you go, the more potential damage can be done.

However Dr Homer has countered these concerns by saying that the laser will only target the pigment at the front of the iris and that there were no side-effects in the trial surgeries so far.