Bladeless Cataract Surgery Singapore

Usually not entirely. A femtosecond laser is capable of cutting the entry wound, but in practice in Singapore that wound is made with a blade, including here. The laser does the other steps — opening the lens capsule, softening the cataract, and arcuate incisions where astigmatism is being treated. Laser-assisted cataract surgery is the accurate name for what is offered, and bladeless — or no-blade — is the name it is usually sold under.

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding of the name. The cataract is broken up by ultrasound and drawn out through the entry wound, in laser-assisted and standard surgery alike. The laser prepares the eye for that step; it does not perform it, and it does not put the new lens in either.

A laser that delivers pulses lasting a few quadrillionths of a second. Each pulse is short enough to separate tissue at a precise depth without heating what surrounds it, which is what allows a cut to be planned inside the eye. The same class of laser is used to make the corneal flap in LASIK.

The trials do not show that it is. A Cochrane review of 42 randomised trials covering 7,298 eyes found probably little or no difference between laser-assisted and standard ultrasound surgery in complications during or after the operation, in visual acuity afterwards, or in how patients rated their own vision. It also found laser assistance the less cost-effective of the two. It is a different way of performing some of the steps, not a better operation, and standard surgery is not a lesser one.

Yes. At The Straits Eye Centre it is $5,500 to $12,000 per eye. The laser is a separate machine with a cost attached to each case, and that sits on top of the surgical fee, which is why the lower end sits above the range for standard cataract surgery. Where you fall inside it depends on the lens you and your surgeon choose, whether laser assistance is used, and your insurance status. You are given the figure for your own eyes in writing before anything is booked.

At The Straits Eye Centre, laser-assisted cataract surgery is performed by Dr Jayant V Iyer and Dr Jason Lee, both Senior Consultants and Medical Directors of the practice. Whether the laser is used in your case is decided after your eyes have been examined and measured; the eye specialist who sees you may recommend standard ultrasound surgery instead, and that recommendation is not a downgrade.

It is a decision made after your eyes are examined and measured, not from a page. Astigmatism being corrected at the time of surgery, a dense cataract, and a lens that depends on sitting in a predictable position are the situations where a programmed cut is most useful. Your surgeon may recommend standard surgery instead, and that recommendation is not a downgrade.

Only in that the laser stage happens first, with the eye held steady under a docking device for a short time before the surgery itself begins. The anaesthesia, the theatre, the shield afterwards, the drops and the follow-up appointments are the same. It remains day surgery under local anaesthesia and you go home the same day.