ABSTRACT
Background: cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed surgery in the world and the number of individuals with cataracts is predicted to reach 30 million by the year 20201. This number will continue to grow as the population ages. More and more patients pursue surgery at the early stage of cataract in order not to endure visual impairment. Phacoemulsification is the standard surgery procedure for cataract in the developed countries. In recent years, femtosecond laser [FSL] has been introduced into phacoemulsification cataract surgery to perform corneal incisions, capsulorhexis, and nuclear fragmentation. Numerous clinical studies have reported that using FSL to perform nuclear fragmentation before phacoemulsification significantly reduces the amount of ultrasound energy and effective phacoemulsification time [EPT] required in the surgery
Purpose: the goal of the present study is to assess the effect of FSL on effective phaco time in comparison to conventional phacoemusification procedure
Patients and Methods: a comparative study included 40 patients with senile cataract [nuclear cataract grade III or more] based on lens opacification classification system III [LOCSIII]. The patients were subdivided into 2 groups; group [A] included 20 patients with senile cataract underwent Femtosecond laser-assisted phacoemulsification [CATALYS FSL system [Abbott Medical Optics]] and group [B] included 20 patients with senile cataract underwent conventional phacoemulsification [ INFINTI phacoemulsification platform [Alcon]]. Effective phaco time had monitored and recorded in all patients
Results: as regarding conventional phaco group, mean EPT was 19.80+/-24.33 and in femto group, mean EPT was 1.05+/-1.28 with [p-value 0.001] which shows highly significant difference between the two groups
Conclusion: femto-second laser assisted cataract surgery reduces effective phacoemulsification time for grade 3 or more of nuclear cataract in comparison to manual procedure