Conventional Surgery vs. Verion/VerifEye

Nowadays cataract patient's expectations are closer to those of refractive surgery patients. Patients want to be spectacle independent. However, fifteen to twenty percent of cataract surgery patients have from 1.00 to 3.00 diopters (D) of corneal astigmatism which makes achieving spectacle independence unlikely in this patients unless the astigmatism is treated at the time of cataract surgery. Option to treat this astigmatism include corneal or limbal incisions (LRIs), the use of toric intraocular lenses (IOLs) or LASIK. Regardless of the treatment of choice to correct the astigmatism at time of cataract extraction, a treatment plan has to be calculated preoperatively. This planning include: keratometry measurements and the use of a calculator to estimate the treatment and orientation of IOL and/or placement of the LRIs. New technology has been developed and is widely used. Among this technology, we have the VERION Image Guided System. This system encompasses a reference unit that takes a picture of the eye with the patient in the sitting position creating image of the patient's eye, capturing scleral vessels, limbus and iris features. It measures keratometry as well as the corneal diameter (limbus) and pupil size. The information captured is transferred automatically to its planner where IOL power calculation and astigmatism correction calculation are completed. Additionally, intraoperative wavefront aberrometry has been used in the last couple of years with increase success.