Femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery in The NHS - Version1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development of surgical pathways using Femto-second laser technology to increase the efficiency and safety of cataract surgery within a public health sector setting.
IRAS ID
198644
Contact name
David O'Brart
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
This study aims to examine the health economics of adopting femtosecond laser technology to assist cataract surgery (FLACS) within a state-funded healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS).
Cataract surgery is one of the commonest and most successful surgical interventions undertaken in modern medicine. Within the NHS in the UK alone, an estimated 350,000 cataract surgeries are undertaken per annum at a cost of over £300 million.
Femto-second laser technology has been recently introduced into cataract surgery in an attempt to automate and improve the efficacy of some of the surgical steps within this procedure. This has the potential to reduce actual surgeon operating time, while maintaining and possibly improving patient safety and outcomes. Reduced surgeon operating time can clearly lead to improved efficiency and increased patient throughput. Increasing patient throughput should have the potential to offset initial expenditure and additional costs associated with femtosecond laser technology. To date, no research has been conducted investigating the cost of femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery within a national health service model.
The aim of this study centres around performing a randomised controlled trial comparing FLACS against conventional phacoemulsification cataract surgery. Efficiency parameters such as patient flow through theatres, duration of operations, as well as clinical outcomes and patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) will be recorded. Our hypothesis to test is whether the laser can improve theatre efficiency sufficiently to offset the initial cost of the machine, with no disadvantage to the patient in terms of poorer clinical outcomes or patient satisfaction.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0180
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion