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Almost 23 million people around the world have cataract surgery every year. For the treatment of cataract, which is among the most important causes of preventable blindness, new surgical methods are now being applied which give much more effective results. Bekir Sitki Aslan, MD, from the Eye Department of Ankara Memorial Hospital, gives information about innovations in cataract surgery.
Cataract treatment options are always updated because of its direct effect on life. Technological developments now enable the cataract surgeries to be performed more effectively. High-tech devices used in cataract surgery with digital navigation allows eye surgeons to automate the most challenging and important steps of the cataract surgeon, to make plans and implement them. As a natural consequence of that, the visual results of cataract patients can be more improved.
In the process called "Femtolaser Assisted Cataract Surgery with Digital Navigation", the eye profile of the patient is obtained by using special technologies, and the operation is specially planned with reference to this profile. The plan is copied to a flash memory and the femtolaser performs the cuts according to the date in the flash memory. The artificial lens to be placed in the eye is also placed in consideration of the reference values in the flash memory and as a result of that it provides better visual quality.
Cataract surgery is one of the most advanced surgical interventions among all medical applications, and the improvement in vision can be achieved in more than 95% of patients. However, the visual acuity may be less than the optimal in a significant number of patients.
Before the surgery, a high-resolution, diagnostic-purpose reference image is taken from the patient's eye. This image, which can be called as the eye map of the patient, allows the surgeon to see in real time all the incisions and the alignment of intraocular lens during the procedure. In cataract surgeries, the cornea and lens were made manually by the surgeon in the past, but now, it is done exactly where it should be thanks to the digital navigation. This helps to ensure that the lens is placed in the best place, the astigmatism is controlled and a better vision quality is obtained in the end.
Femtolaser assisted cataract surgery with digital navigation can result in long-lasting vision quality even in the cases with advanced cataracts after the treatment. In the eye there is a cell layer called as endothelium at the back of cornea. In cataract surgeries, the cell loss in this layer can be much more in the advanced cataracts. In femtolaser assisted cataract surgery with digital navigation, the loss of endothelium can be less and the vision quality can be long-lasting after the surgery.
10 March 2021
20 April 2018
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