Bladeless Cataract Surgery Takes Off At Mount Elizabeth Hospital

Nov. 5, 2012 - PRLog -- Mount Elizabeth Hospital is one of the first private hospitals in Singapore to have obtained the computercontrolled Femtosecond LenSx® laser machine to perform Bladeless Cataract Surgery. Since May 2012, the hospital has performed more than one hundred procedures, improving and restoring the sight of cataract patients locally and regionally.

http://mountelizabeth.com.sg/en/Facilities-Services/Specialties-and-Specialised-Services/Bladeless-Cataract-Surgery

What are the advantages of using the Femtosecond Bladeless technique?

Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed worldwide. Cataract is the clouding of the natural lens inside your eye. This lens works just like the lens of a camera – focusing light images on the retina, which sends images to the brain.  

Traditional cataract surgery uses ultrasound to break up the cloudy natural lens in the eye, and upon removal of these fragments, a new lens implant is used in its place. With the traditional technique, the surgeon would have to manually make tiny incisions in the eye. Now, patients have the option of having the bladeless computer-controlled laser to perform  the key critical steps of cataract surgery. This breakthrough in technology has several distinct advantages over traditional cataract surgery:  

•  Improved precision.

The computer-controlled LenSx® laser automates the  incisions with a high degree of precision. A perfectly-sized opening in front of the lens is created and the eye is successfully prepared for subsequent steps of cataract surgery.  

•  More precise and well-centred capsule openings.

Instead of using a pair of handheld forceps to create the opening of the cataract, the laser uses the image-guided Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which provides real-time 3D visualisation of the eye. This enables the incision to be perfectly shaped and centred according to your own unique eye.  

•  Less ultrasound energy needed.

Recovery with this procedure may be quicker compared to other surgical methods since less energy is used to break up the cataract compared to other surgical methods.  

•  Better customisation.

The LenSx® laser has the ability to capture precise high-resolution images of your eye which are then used to aid surgery with exacting specifications not attainable with traditional procedures. This is crucial because every eye is different in terms of size, depth and curvature, all of which must be carefully mapped prior to cataract surgery.

Dr Chua Wei Han, Ophthalmologist and Director of the Parkway Eye Centre in Mount Elizabeth Hospital says: “The advanced technology in bladeless cataract surgery enables the surgeon to perform several of the more critical steps of cataract surgery using the laser technology adapted from bladeless LASIK surgery.”

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About Mount Elizabeth Hospital

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