EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/220233
Laser-assisted cataract surgery When asked to list all the barriers they have to adopting laser-assisted cataract surgery in their practices, the average respondent listed 1.5 barriers. Financial barriers were the most common followed by a lack of data showing benefits over conventional cataract surgery. The financial barrier was much more significant for U.S. versus non-U.S. physicians. Today, 58% are not confident there is a current adequate reimbursement solution to support laser-assisted cataract surgery (LACS), however this number lowers to 44% when asked their projections 5 years from now. When asked to identify all the areas where they believe there may be a significant clinical benefit in LACS versus conventional cataract surgery, the average respondent listed 2.0 benefits. Arcuate incisions and capsulorhexis were listed as the most common areas of improvements. These was a dramatic difference in the opinions of accurate incisions where U.S. surgeons saw almost twice as much benefit to these versus their non-U.S. colleagues. 16% saw no areas where there would be a clinical benefit with this technology. Interestingly, 91% of respondents believe that they will be performing LACS on some of their patients in 10 years, however only 36% believe that they will be performing LACS on the majority of their patients. 4