Cataract Surgery with OCT-guided Femtosecond Laser

About a third of people in the developed world will undergo cataract surgery in their lifetime. Currently, cataract surgery is a manual procedure highly dependent on the surgical skills and complicating factors. We developed and tested an image-guided laser system to improve the precision and reproducibility of cataract surgery. A long-range Optical Coherence Tomography automatically discerns the anterior and posterior surfaces of the lens and cornea, and a co-registered femtosecond laser then performs capsulotomy, lens segmentation and corneal incisions. Capsular strength following laser capsulotomy and mechanical capsulorhexis were compared on cadaveric eyes, and retinal safety was verified on rabbits. 50 patients have undergone cataract surgery using the laser system. Eyes were examined ophthalmoscopically, and extracted capsules were analyzed using histology and SEM.