Laser cataract surgery is fast becoming a reality.
Last month, Houston ophthalmologist Stephen G. Slade, MD, become the first cataract surgeon to perform the laser-assisted cataract extraction procedure in the United States.
Dr. Slade used the LenSx femtosecond laser (LenSx Lasers, Inc., Aliso Viejo, Calif.) for eight cataract surgeries he performed at his office-based surgery center on February 26.
All patients were counseled about cataract surgery risks, and all procedures were successfully completed with the implantation of a premium intraocular lens, according to a press release issued by LenSx on March 9.
“This is the cataract surgery that I would want for my friends, my family and myself,” Dr. Slade said in the release.
In the procedure, the femtosecond laser is used to create self-sealing corneal incisions and to open the capsule enclosing the front surface of the eye’s natural lens (a procedure called an anterior capsulotomy), exposing the cataract for removal. Extraction of the cataract is performed as it currently is in modern phacoemulsification cataract surgery: with an ultrasonic probe that breaks up the cloudy lens for easier removal from the eye.
The use of a femtosecond laser rather than a surgical blade to make the corneal incisions and to perform the anterior capsulotomy transforms cataract surgery into a blade-free procedure, just as femtosecond lasers have similarly transformed LASIK surgery.
Lola Anderson, a Houston resident, was the first U.S. patient to have the procedure performed on her eye. “This was an awesome experience, I didn’t feel a thing,” she said after the surgery.
Tags: laser