Folly of FLACS

Join White as he discusses the history of cataract surgery and where femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery, or FLACS, fits in. He also explains what he believes to be follies of FLACS and why some people continue to use this procedure.

• Disclaimer :09
• Intro :24
• Today we’ll talk about femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery, or FLACS :36
• Financial disclosures :57
• The history of cataract surgery and where FLACS fits in 1:21
• The lens supplies about 1/3 of the focusing ability of the human eye 3:35
• Scheie Eye Institute 5:42
• The discovery of poly(methyl methacrylate) 6:14
• Extracapsular cataract extraction 7:14
• Cataract surgery moves almost entirely to posterior chamber 7:44
• The YAG laser 18:40
• Phacoemulsification 19:21
• All of these procedures were paid for by health insurance 11:41
• The Crystalens 17:00
• A petition for patients to have the right to pay to upgrade their implant experience 17:37
• The era of refractive cataract surgery 19:03
• A false timeline 19:32
• Comparing things properly, you find a small difference between two surgeries 22:29
• The impressive engineering of femtosecond lasers 23:30
• Why do people use the femtosecond laser surgery? 24:53
• I do a bit of work as a defense expert in malpractice cases 26:42
• There are some bright spots here 29:21
• Calling out two groups who don’t let patients decide whether they want FLACS 30:48
• I have respect for them, but I don’t think there is justification for doing FLACS based on outcomes 36:13
• Throwing a bone to the proponents of FLACS 37:14
• That’s my take on FLACS 38:56

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. White at ophthalmology@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @Healio_OSN @DarrellWhite

Disclosures: White reports being a consultant to Allergan, Bruder, EyePoint, Eyevance, Kala, Novartis, Ocular Therapeutix, Omeros, Rendia, Sun and Tearlab; speaker for Allergan, Eyevance, Kala, Novartis, Omeros and Sun; and ownership in Ocular Science.