Many patients have now heard about the new femtosecond, laser cataract surgery following a recent segment on television.

This subject is increasingly being raised in discussion when patients come to see me for cataract surgery.

The committee at the Victoria Parade Surgical Centre where we regularly operate, recently met to discuss the possibility of purchasing one of these devices. To date there are two in operation in NSW only. After the meeting it was decided that we not be acquiring one. The reasons are as foliows. The machine cost more than half a million dollars and the on going maintenance nearly $100,000 per annum. Further the per patient cost is $500. In order for the centre to break even per patient, an additional cost of more than $1500 needs to be imposed on each patient. Now who in their right mind would want to pay this additional sum for their cataract surgery? Particularly since there is no tangible benefit other than to be able to boast that their surgery was done by the state of the art method.

If there was a markedly better outcome or increased safety then maybe, but there isn’t either. Thus at present this type of surgery is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Now make no mistake, that in the future it will probably be the way to go, but until it becomes significantly cheaper it will not become mainstream.

All that can be said about it is that it is just a “different” way of performing an already excellent operation, not a better way.

Exciting news!
Melbourne Eye Centre will be adopting the new SMI toric alignment technology as part of the surgical workflow.

One of the most difficult aspects of both cataract surgery and refractive surgery, is the accurate alignment of a toric lens.
Furthermore, the position of the surgical wound and or timbal relaxing incisions is critically important and has profound impact on the final. post operative refraction.
This will be made significantly easier with a new eye tracker shortly to be introduced.
The device allows for a scan of the iris to be performed at the time of the consultation which is then “tracked” during surgery and ensures precision placement of surgical wounds and alignment of toric lenses.
Toric lenses in particular are very dependent on alignment as every 10 degrees of misalignment results in loss of 30% of the power of the toric. Thus a 30 degree would mean a complete loss of the toric power.
The link for more information is here