Study compares femtosecond laser systems time efficiency in cataract surgery
A recent study comparing 2 femtosecond laser systems used in cataract surgery, LenSx (Alcon) and CATALYS (Johnson & Johnson), found that LenSx procedures were significantly shorter in duration compared to CATALYS.
The study, conducted as a single-masked evaluation, included 89 patients undergoing femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) who met specific criteria including no previous eye surgeries, absence of pregnancy, and no concurrent surgical procedures scheduled. Patients receiving standard, monofocal lenses without arcuate incisions were excluded, as were individuals taking FLOMAX or any Tamsulosin.
The overall procedure duration was found to be 2.86 minutes shorter for LenSx compared to CATALYS (P < 0.05). On a per-patient basis, LenSx exhibited significantly reduced time requirements for patient positioning (57.26 vs 122.00 seconds; P <0.05), imaging (33.23 vs 42.17 seconds; P <0.05), laser treatment (21.57 vs 39.67 seconds; P <0.05), and undocking/transition (67.13 vs 185.30 seconds; P <0.05) when compared to CATALYS. Further regression analyses supported these findings, indicating LenSx was over 35% (3.21 minutes; P <0.05) shorter overall than CATALYS, even after controlling for variables such as location, age, gender, lens thickness, cataract grade, fragmentation pattern, and arcuate incisions.
Reference
Heit L, Datar M, Kyriakakos M, et al. Comparing the Time-Efficiency of Two Lasers Used in Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery: A Real-world Observational Study. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2023;doi: 10.1097/j.jcrs.0000000000001321. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37748033.
