This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Femtosecond laser cataract surgery shows encouraging results
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ROME — Preliminary results of femtosecond laser cataract surgery are promising, according to a presenter here.
There are currently three femtosecond laser systems by three companies — LenSx, LensAR and OptiMedica — that have been developed to perform cataract surgery.
"A new addition to LenSx is the [optical coherence tomography] that helps visualize the capsule. Patients undergo an image-guided laser procedure prior to completion of the manual steps of the procedure," Karl G. Stonecipher, MD, said at the annual joint meeting of Ocular Surgery News and the Italian Society of Ophthalmology.
The laser first emulsifies the lens with a liquefaction or fragmentation procedure, and then the arcuate incision, secondary and primary incisions, and capsulotomy are performed.
"You do it in this succession because you want to avoid some of the bubbles that form in the softening and fragmentation of the lens," Dr. Stonecipher said.
After hydrodissection, irrigation and aspiration is performed as in standard phaco.
Results are so far encouraging. A 43% reduction of average phaco time and a 51% reduction of effective phaco power were obtained. Good IOL centration was achieved. All subjects achieved good visual acuity, and no significant complication was reported.
Follow OSNSuperSite.com
on Twitter.