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Clinical experience and surgical pearls when performing femto-cataract surgery

Session Details

Session Title: Femto-cataract

Session Date/Time: Monday 07/10/2013 | 08:00-10:00

Paper Time: 08:00

Venue: Forum (Ground Floor)

First Author: : P.Schraepen BELGIUM

Co Author(s): :    E. Mertens              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

The Victus Femtosecond Laser Platform (Bausch + Lomb Technolas) has been developed as a versatile system able to perform the key steps in cataract surgery, create LASIK flaps and be used in therapeutic indications. This study evaluated the performance, ease of use and key learnings when using the laser for cataract surgery.

Setting:

Medipolis Eye Center, Antwerp, Belgium

Methods:

In this single surgeon study of the femto-cataract, anterior capsulotomies and lens fragmentation were performed in 177 consecutive eyes with Victus femtosecond laser, prior to phacoemulsification with the Stellaris system (B+L). The precision, safety and clinical outcomes using this new technique were evaluated. The learning curve, surgical pearls, procedure time, ease of use, and patient flow were also assessed.

Results:

All 177 lens surgeries were safely performed. For the laser portion of the cataract surgery, a minimal learning curve is required for docking the patient interface. Using a soft-docking approach and applying 3-6 drops of BSS prior to docking the curved patient interface, optimises the technique. The laser’s graphic user interface is easy to use when planning the laser procedure. Planning and laser treatment typically takes around 2 minutes. The laser produces very precise capsulotomies which were removed with forceps using a centripetal movement. Only minimal and gentle hydrodissection is required. A fragmentation pattern combining circles and radial cuts allows for easy lens removal during phaco with reduced phaco energy compared to standard cataract surgery. Our clinic set up allows for the laser and phaco system to both be positioned in the same OR, resulting in easy patient flow and no impact on the overall cataract procedure time compared with the manual technique.

Conclusions:

Our experience with Victus system finds it safely and accurately performs anterior capsulotomies and lens fragmentation. Transitioning to this technique involves a short learning curve, minimal adjustments to the phaco technique and has not impacted on our patient flow.

Financial Interest:

NONE