Laser Cataract Surgery More Accurate Than Manual

Laser Cataract Surgery More Accurate Than Manual.
Cataract surgery, already an bloody crypt and successful procedure, can be made more precise by combining a laser and three-dimensional imaging, a unusual study suggests. Researchers found that a femtosecond laser, used for many years in LASIK surgery, can shear into delicate eye tissue more cleanly and accurately than manual cataract surgery, which is performed more than 1,5 million times each year in the United States. In the ongoing procedure, which has a 98 percent good rate, surgeons use a micro-blade to cut a circle around the cornea before extracting the cataract with an ultrasound machine.

The laser plan uses optical coherence technology to customize each patient's comprehension measurements before slicing through the lens capsule and cataract, though ultrasound is still used to remove the cataract itself. "It takes some deftness and energy to break the lens with the ultrasound," explained outdo researcher Daniel Palanker, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University. "The laser helps to go like a bat out of hell this up and make it safer".

After practicing the laser procedure on pig eyes and donated hominid eyes, Palanker and his colleagues did further experiments to confirm 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 draw circles in lens capsules 12 times more unyielding than those achieved by the conventional method. No adverse effects were reported.

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