Comparison Of Intra-Operative Time Taken For Docking, Lenticule Dissection And Overall Workflow For Smile Performed With Visumax 800 Versus The Visumax Fs Laser

To compare the overall workflow of performing bilateral SMILE procedure using the VisuMax 800 (VM) versus the VisuMax (VM) FS laser

Nethradhama Superspeciality Eye Hospital, Bangalore, India.

A total of 60 patients undergoing bilateral SMILE procedure were randomly divided to receive treatment with VM 800 (n=30 patients) or VM FS laser (n=30 patients) for correction of myopia and myopic astigmatism (< 1.5 D). A new workflow was followed for the VM group (bilateral sequential docking and lenticule extraction when the laser and microscope arms were lowered respectively), versus the conventional workflow (treating one eye at a time) in the VM group.

The combined docking and overall surgical time of performing a bilateral procedure in the VM800 group was 133.63 sec and 6.96 min, which was significantly less compared to VM group, wherein these values were 194.11sec and 9.51min respectively (p<0.001). However, the lenticule dissection time was comparable between groups (p=0.07). The mean score of ease of lenticule separation was significantly better with VM 800, (p=0.03). However, no significant differences were observed in the POD-1 and 2 weeks UDVA and OSI between the groups, (p >0.05). Patient’s scores regarding subjective symptoms and intra-operative experience were also comparable, between the groups. No complications occurred in any of the cases operated with either of the systems.

No significant differences were observed in clinical outcomes between the two laser systems, however, in terms of the overall workflow and ease of lenticule separation, VM 800 showed significant advantages due to implementation of a new workflow and potential improvements in the technology.