Early experience with the femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery

Objective To describe the early experience with the femtosecond Laser-assisted cataract surgery. Methods This study involved 85 continuous patients (114 eyes) who planned to have femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgeries. All eyes were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 (first 50 eyes) and Group 2 (eyes 51 through 114). All femtosecond laser-assisted (LenSx, Alcon, Fort Worth, TX) cataract surgeries were performed by the same experienced cataract surgeon (also experienced with corneal refractive surgeries). Femtosecond laser procedures included anterior capsulotomy, lens segmentation, and clear corneal incision creation. All abnormalities and complications during the surgeries were recorded. Results The mean age of patients in 2 groups was 60.4±14.9 years and 60.9±16.2 years, respectively. There was no significant difference was found between the 2 groups. The numbers of docking attempts and occurrence rates of subconjunctival hemorrhage of 2 groups were 1.14±0.50 and 1.19±0.53, 22.0% (11 eyes) and 34.4% (22 eyes), respectively. However, both of them showed no significant differences between the 2 groups. The occurrence rates of corneal incision creation assisted with keratome in 2 groups were 26% (13 eyes) and 17.2% (11 eyes), miosis after the laser procedure were 2% (1 eye) and 1.6% (1 eye), anterior capsular tags were 4% (2 eyes) and 3.1% (2 eye), anterior capsular tear were 4% (2 eyes) and 3.1% (2 eyes), posterior capsular tearwere 2% (1 eye) and 0; No significant differences were found in those complication occurrence rates between the 2 groups (P ranged from 0.252 to 0.801). Conclusions FLACS is proved to be very safe for the experienced cataract surgeon, especially for those who also possess rich experiences in corneal refractive surgeries. The learning curve has no significant effect on the abnormalities and complications occurrence during the surgery. Key words: Femtasecond; Cataract; Learning curve; Complication