The total incidence of cataract in the city is about 73% for people over 60 years old, which means that 70% of people over 60 years old suffer from cataract. In response to this situation, Zhou Hongjian, president of the city eye hospital and cataract specialist, said that the only means to treat cataract is surgical removal, and the existing femtosecond laser technology of the hospital also makes the cataract treatment more accurate and brings gospel to more cataract patients.
In recent years, the city eye hospital has been committed to cataract research and treatment. The reporter learned from the hospital that from the survey data since 2010, the total incidence of cataract in the city is 73% for people over 60 years old, 86% for people over 70 years old and 91% for people over 80 years old. The higher the age, the higher the incidence of cataracts.
Zhou Hongjian, president of the city eye hospital, said that with the improvement of technology, cataract patients no longer have to wait until they are completely blind before having surgery, but can have surgery at the right time according to the needs of different people. For example, drivers, mechanics and other people with high vision requirements can have surgery when their vision drops to 0.5-0.4, while people with low vision requirements generally have surgery when their vision drops by 0.3-0.2. If one insists on waiting until the cataract is fully mature before surgery, on the one hand, it will affect the patient’s work and life due to blurred vision, and on the other hand, overripe cataracts will make the surgery itself difficult and affect the post-operative vision recovery. In addition, some overripe cataracts can induce glaucoma, resulting in the serious consequence of permanent blindness.
Up to now, the city eye hospital has used advanced femtosecond laser technology to perform femtosecond laser cataract treatment surgery for hundreds of patients, and the patients’ refractive status after surgery have all reached the expected preoperative results.
According to President Zhou, the traditional cataract removal surgery mainly relies on the surgeon’s personal skills to complete the cataract removal surgery with a scalpel. The surgery mainly goes through three stages: first, the capsule is torn open and a circular opening is made in the anterior capsule of the lens; then ultrasound emulsification is performed to oscillate the nucleus of the cataract into small fragments and suck it out; finally, an artificial lens is implanted by injection. Therefore, it is important to cut the capsule membrane during the surgery. The position of the capsule membrane and whether the curvature is round enough are very much related to the surgeon’s knife work.
“If the capsule is cut in the middle of the lens surface, the IOL can also be placed in the middle, and the postoperative visual effect will be better. And the smoother the incision, the more firmly the IOL can be installed and less likely to fall out. Our hospital’s femtosecond laser technology allows cataract surgery to be more precise than in the era of traditional manual operation. It can be said that the involvement of the femtosecond laser has brought cataract removal surgery into a knifeless era.” Using this advanced technology, the cataract surgeon simply sets the cutting parameters on the machine of the femtosecond laser to suit the individual according to the patient’s condition, and can perform the capsulotomy in a centered position with very flat and smooth edges of the incision, said President Zhou.
In addition, femtosecond laser technology has the convenience of cutting the capsule membrane while also cutting the nucleus into six equal parts, which greatly reduces the amount of energy used during ultrasound emulsification. “This energy savings not only simplifies the operation for the surgeon, but also reduces the damage to the eye from ultrasound. There is a clear comparison that patients who have their cataracts removed with the femtosecond laser have very little edema the day after the procedure, which can occur with the traditional surgical approach.” Dean Zhou said.
President Hongjian Zhou said that traditional cataract removal surgery is a blindness prevention surgery, while femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery is a quality surgery that allows patients to not only avoid the risk of blindness, but also have a better visual experience, “Femtosecond laser cataract surgery is a surgery that seeks a higher visual experience. People with higher visual requirements can consider giving themselves a better option if their financial conditions allow it.”