Study of the Efficiency and Workflow of Femtosecond Laser Assisted Cataract Surgery in a Spanish Public Hospital

Abstract

Background: To assess the time-efficiency of a designated operation room (OR) workflow in the introduction of Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS, LenSx, Alcon®). The study was carried out in a public hospital with high volume of procedures. Methods: We performed this prospective, controlled, surgical intervention study in the Ophthalmology department of a tertiary referral Spanish public hospital. A total of 167 eyes were enrolled, including 62 eyes undergoing conventional phacoemulsification surgery. In phase I, patients were assigned either to FLACS-I (n=63) or conventional phacoemulsification surgery (n=62). One surgeon operated the Femto-second laser, another finished the procedure, whereas another performed a conventional phacoemulsification. In the second phase (FLACS-II), all the surgeries were FLACS (n=42). A surgeon performed the FLACS procedure and two different surgeons completed the surgeries in separated ORs. Surgical and rollover times of all the patients were recorded. Results: Preparation time was statistically significant lower in FLACS-I and FLACS-II (p<0.001) whereas the time of the cataract procedure per se was