EyeWorld Asia-Pacific June 2016 Issue

June 2016 12 EWAP FEATURE Ramanathan said they need to be comfortable with phaco first, otherwise they would not be able to handle complications that could occur with femto. Furthermore, some aspects of femtosecond surgery could make the later phaco portion more difficult, such as in cortical cleanup. Overall, Dr. Ramanathan encourages her residents to be “cautiously enthusiastic” with femto and with other new technologies that will come down the pike. “I advise my residents to always use the tools of evidence- based medicine that we all learn throughout medical school,” she said. “Having said that, always keep an open mind because when things are new, sometimes we don’t know what role they will eventually play in our practices. We always have to walk a line of being not too ready to adopt something just because it’s new, but not too late to adopt something when it’s been shown to be beneficial.” Divya Srikumaran, MD , assistant professor of ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, said that while residents should be aware of the newest technologies, they need to have “a very healthy sense of the appropriateness” of them. “Sometimes it’s easy to get carried away with what is perceived as the latest and greatest,” she said. “You should have a healthy amount of skepticism as to whether it’s really better and challenge all your trainees to make sure they are exploring that with every new technology before they incorporate it into their practice; we have to model that with our behavior as well as in our teaching practices.” So where are we now? “Standard phaco and femtosecond cataract surgery have evolved to the point that if done well in experienced hands, both will have excellent outcomes,” Dr. McLeod said. “However, femtosecond cataract surgery is in its infancy, so its trajectory likely far outpaces that of phaco, and so in the interest of collectively advancing technology and options for our patients, it serves us well to responsibly apply this new platform and help to move it forward.” EWAP References 1. Abell RG, et al. Femtosecond laser- assisted cataract surgery versus standard phacoemulsification cataract surgery: outcomes and safety in more than 4,000 cases at a single center. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2015;41:47–52. 2. Yu Y, et al. Comparative outcomes of femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery and manual phacoemulsification: a six-month follow-up. Clin Experiment Ophthalmol. 2015 Dec 30. 3. Conrad-Hengerer I, et al. Comparison of visual recovery and refractive stability between femtosecond laser- assisted cataract surgery and standard phacoemulsification: six-month follow-up. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2015;41:1356– 64. 4. Chen H, et al. Visual and refractive outcomes of laser cataract surgery. Curr Opin Ophthalmol . 2014;25:49–53. 5. Trikha S, et al. The journey to femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery: new beginnings or a false dawn? Eye. 2013;27:461–73. 6. Donaldson KE, et al. Femtosecond laser- assisted cataract surgery. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2013;39:1754–63. Editors’ note: The physicians have no financial interests related to their comments. Contact information Chiu: Cynthia.Chiu@ucsf.edu McLeod: Stephen.McLeod@ucsf.edu Ramanathan: saras.ramanathan@gmail.com Srikumaran: dsrikum1@jhmi.edu Femto in cataract - from page 11 gutter Fernando Trindade Reiner Witfang Paul Singh Wayne Crewe-Brown John Vukich Eric Donnenfeld Karl Stonecipher Damien Gatinel Michael Assouline John Berdahl Oliver Findl AUSCRS 2016 is all about records! The LARGEST number of overseas guest speakers ever! The LARGEST exhibition ever! The BEST Support Program ever! www.auscrs2016.org.au