Femto cataract and How is it different than traditional cataract surgery?
Cataract surgery has taken a new turn with the introduction of Femto-cataract technology. It has enhanced the levels of safety, predictability and accuracy of the outcome of the cataract surgery.
What is Femtosecond laser?
Femto second is the term of time unit that is equivalent to one quadrillionth of a second!
This is how fast the laser energy beams of femtosecond laser devices bursts. These pulses can break tissues at molecular levels without damaging their neighboring tissues! How does femtosecond laser benefit in laser cataract surgeries?
Femtosecond lasers can replace and/or assist the use of handheld surgical tools in any /all of the following steps:
- Corneal incision
- Anterior capsulotomy ( breaking down the front part of the capsule holding the damaged lens)
- Lens fragmentation. (Defragmenting the damaged lens).
This laser improves the precision level of each of these steps making the risks of damage, inflammation, inaccuracy of fragmentation almost obsolete. This highly improves the predictability thus the visual outcome of the surgery.
More details about femtosecond cataract surgery
Step 1: corneal incision
Starting with the corneal incision, the ophthalmologist (eye surgeon) uses a metallic blade to create the incision that allows access to the inside of the eye. When using femtosecond laser in this step we decrease the risk of inaccuracy, bleeding and inflammation allowing for a better healing process.
With the help of the state of the art 3D technology and the use of femtosecond laser, the surgeon can perform the incision with the highest standards of accuracy independent of his experience! This allows the incision to self-heal and decrease the risk of inflammation and infection.
Step 2: capsulotomy
reaching the clouded lens (cataract) , opening the capsule that holds it in place and removing the damaged lens. When using femtosecond laser in this step, we allow minimal damage to surrounding tissue! Because we need the remainder of the lens capsule to hold the artificial intraocular lens in place forever.
Also, the use of femtosecond laser in this step allows better stability positioning and centring of the IOL adding a great value to the final visual acuity!
Step 3: Cataract Fragmentation!
Using femtosecond laser in this step (Femto-cataract) allows the surgeon to use the minimal incision size possible to allow the device of phaco-emulsification to break down the cataract! Softening the cataract as it breaks up into smaller pieces so less energy is used to remove it thus decreasing the risk for incision distortion!
Femto cataract in a glance
- Procedure time: almost 20 minutes
- results: long-lasting clear vision ( after insertion of IOL)
- Recovery time: less than a month.
As we can see after this article, femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgeries also known as femtocataract can hugely help in all steps of cataract surgery allowing for more aaccuracy, better healing and predictable visual outcome!
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