EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/115557
Cataract/IOLs, femtosecond cataract March 2013 A new continued from page 107 ing everything built in one box is an advantage." This is also true, he thinks, from a service point of view. "The costs are not just upfront, but they are continuous in terms of your service contract and maintenance," he said. In a competitive cataract-only position However, Mark J. Forchette, president and CEO, OptiMedica, Sunnyvale, Calif., sees distinct advantages to having a dedicated femtosecond cataract system such as the OptiMedica Catalys Precision Laser. He points to a plethora of elements that can come into play here. "It's the location of the system, the simplicity of its workflow, and the design decisions that we made to optimize the performance for cataract surgery," he said. Mr. Forchette pointed out that targeting the cornea is very different from working deep within the nucleus of the lens. "When we designed our system we did it to treat deeply within the lens, full volume including the safety zone, and we maximized the volume of fragmentation," he said. When you start combining platforms, Mr. Forchette said that there are some inherent design compromises that need to be made. Nick T. Curtis, CEO, LensAR, Orlando, Fla., agreed. "There are tradeoffs," he said. "If you're really efficient in the lens and making accurate corneal incisions, you're going to compromise your flap quality somewhat." He believes that this is the price that the combination systems pay. In his view, with the LensAR Laser System there are no compromises for cataract surgery. "We make a nearly perfect capsulorhexis all the time," Mr. Curtis said. "They're freefloating caps—there are no tags or rough edges or white rim along the edge of the capsulorhexis." Automated software enables surgeons to precisely position the rhexis on the optical axis in the center of the pupil. "The combination systems are manual in surface identification and only look at X and Y axis, not Z, which leads to treatment compromise in capsulotomy and fragmentation involving lens tilt," Mr. Curtis said. Logistics and efficiency can also play a role. "In many situations the cataract surgery suite is not in the same [location] where they're doing the refractive surgery," Mr. Curtis said. This means either transporting patients or perhaps opting for a compromise location for the unit that is not optimal for cataract or refractive surgery. "LensAR has designed the system with optimal workflow in mind for busy cataract surgeons. In the operating room or a procedure room with our system, surgeons have the ability to deliver care with setup flexibility using the standard gurney," he said. "We designed our system to be a workhorse in the operating room environment and to do full days of cataract surgery," Mr. Forchette said. "We have some surgeons who have even elected to place our system in the OR and use the integrated patient bed for their surgery." The OptiMedica system has incorporated arcuate femtosecond incisions, something Mr. Forchette views as a natural adjunct of the cataract procedure. With their system, in many cases they have eliminated the need for ultrasound altogether. "This is a rich advancement in the cataract procedure that can occur by looking in that direction versus looking back over our shoulder at flap creation, when a great percentage of practices already have that capability," he said. "So it is not an addition that we feel compelled to make on our system when there's an opportunity to take cataract surgery so much further." Dr. Roberts disagreed. "I think that we can show that the quality of the LASIK flaps that we get with the Victus are as good as or even better than you can get with a standalone flap maker because our machine is so powerful," he said. Overall, in Dr. Robert's view, the emergence of these combination femtosecond units is another example of how cataract removal is becoming a refractive procedure. "I'm seeing so many of my colleagues who had developed a refractive expertise now embracing cataract with the use of the femtosecond laser because they're bringing that level of precision of refractive surgery to cataract surgery," Dr. Roberts said. EW Reference 1. Soong HK, Malta JB. Femtosecond lasers in ophthalmology. Am J Ophthalmol. 2009 Feb;147(2):189-197.e2. Editors' note: The sources have financial interests with their respective companies. Contact information Curtis: nick.curtis@lensar.com Forchette: mforchette@optimedica.com Leoni: publicrelations@alcon.com Roberts: calvin.w.roberts@bausch.com