The Use of Lasers in Cataract Surgery

In the July 2023 edition of the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, Antoine Benard and colleagues published a study regarding the cost effectiveness of cataract surgery done with the assistance of lasers.

Cataract surgery is primarily done with ultrasound energy, but some surgeons incorporate the use of a laser in order to complete some of the preliminary steps of cataract surgery, such as creation of incisions.

The authors concluded that laser assisted cataract surgery is not cost effective. Certainly, this is not the first study to suggest that laser assistance in cataract surgery is not beneficial. In my personal opinion, there is a lot of evidence that laser assistance is not very useful and a complete lack of evidence that it is in any way helpful.