Laser Cataract Surgery More Accurate Than Manual

Laser Cataract Surgery More Accurate Than Manual.
Cataract surgery, already an uncommonly bona fide and successful procedure, can be made more very by combining a laser and three-dimensional imaging, a additional study suggests. Researchers found that a femtosecond laser, occupied for many years in LASIK surgery, can cut into delicate eye accumulation more cleanly and accurately than manual cataract surgery, which is performed more than 1,5 million times each year in the United States maxocum sperm enhacer in nigeria stores. In the prevalent procedure, which has a 98 percent triumph rate, surgeons use a micro-blade to portion a circle around the cornea before extracting the cataract with an ultrasound machine.

The laser standard operating procedure uses optical coherence technology to customize each patient's fondness measurements before slicing through the lens capsule and cataract, though ultrasound is still Euphemistic pre-owned to remove the cataract itself. "It takes some finesse and energy to break the lens with the ultrasound," explained example researcher Daniel Palanker, an associated professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University. "The laser helps to expeditiousness this up and make it safer".

After practicing the laser course on pig eyes and donated human eyes, Palanker and his colleagues did further experiments to accredit that the high-powered, rapid-pulse laser would not cause retinal damage. Actual surgeries later performed on 50 patients between the ages of 55 and 80 showed that the laser snip circles in lens capsules 12 times more conscientious than those achieved by the established method. No adverse property were reported.

The study, reported in the Nov 17, 2010 publication of Science Translational Medicine, was funded by OpticaMedica Corp of Santa Clara, Calif, in which Palanker has an right-mindedness stake. The results are being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration, while the laser technology, which is being developed by several off the record companies, is expected to be released worldwide in 2011.

Dr Scott Greenstein, a broad ophthalmology and cataracts boffin at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, said he was uneasy that the inquiry was funded by a retinue with a picket in the outcome. But he added that the data was encouraging. "I as far as one is concerned am excited by it," said Greenstein, who teaches ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. "It's an enhancement of something we're already doing that's very much successful. We miss a hundred of centers studying this with more patients. It would be useful to regard if there is a significant statistical difference in the outcomes".

Both Greenstein and Dr Richard Bensinger, a Seattle ophthalmologist and spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, expressed perturb that the laser-guided cataract surgery would be much more extravagant than vade-mecum surgery and were skeptical that health insurance companies would be willing to option up the tab. "It's a fairly expensive way to do something we do starboard now with a $120 instrument that makes the opening. It's effective to the extent that it can avoid a tear in the cornea - but the downside is you exigency a very expensive machine to do it. It's at best a little sensitivity that adds a little precision".

Although the femtosecond laser technique is unquestionably more precise, Palanker's call that it results in a better fit for the artificial lens replacing the clouded one is dubious, Bensinger and Greenstein said. Experienced surgeons performing enchiridion cataract surgery almost never have suffering aligning the new lens with the pupil and keeping it in place.

So "Over the thousands of cases I've done, I'm in not in the know personally of this being a problem. If you have a less precise, au fait surgeon then this would be a benefit for the patient. It makes reproducible, through incisions every time". Palanker said further research will core on whether laser-guided cataract surgery results in better postoperative vision than conventional surgery ad libitum definition music. Among the small group of study participants there was no significant adjustment in outcomes between the two.