Comparison between the Characteristics of Femtosecond laser Anterior Capsulotomy Versus Manual Capsulorhexis and their Effects on Intra Ocular Lens Centration, Effectiveness and Safety in Cataract Surgery
Abstract Background Cataract is characterized with opacity of the crystalline lens that can markedly limit the routine activities of patients such as reading, writing, walking and in the long run reduce the quality of life. Cataract is the main cause of preventable blindness. Despite some modern advances in the field of cataract impending drug treatments, surgical treatment is still known to be the most actual treatment option(1). Objective To perform a meta-analysis on the characteristics of femtosecond laser anterior capsulotomy and manual capsulorhexis and their effects on intra ocular lens (IOL) centration, effectiveness and safety in cataract surgery. Methods This meta-analysis was conducted from 1/1/2015 to 31/7/2018. Literature search on PubMed was done to identify randomised controlled trials (RCT) and comparative studies MedCalc ver. 18.2 (MedCalc, Ostend, Belgium) was used for data analysis. Results Of the 17 articles included, there were 3 (18%) randomised controlled trials and 14 (82%) comparative study. The meta-analysis was based on a total of 18558 eyes. Of them, 9442 (50.88%) underwent femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) and 9116 (49.12%) underwent manual continuous curvilinear capsulorrhexis (CCC). Comparative study between the 2 groups revealed; highly significant increase in better IOL centration; in FLACS group compared to CCC group (p < 0.01), there is non-significant difference as regards capsulotomy diameter (p > 0.05) and non-significant difference as regards corrected distant visual acuity (CDVA) ,un corrected distant visual acuity (UDVA) and mean absolute error (MAE) (p > 0.05). As regards the complications; fixed-effect model showed highly significant increase in complications rate in FLACS group; but random-effects model showed non-significant difference between the 2 groups (p < 0.001, p > 0.05 respectively). Conclusion FLACS is better for IOL centration, but there is non-significant difference between FLACS and manual CCC as regards capsulotomy diameter, CDVA, UDVA, MAE and complication rate.