25/11/2015

Author: Cari Pérez Vives, PhD, Medical Affairs, Alcon Management (Switzerland)

Dr. Barry presented at the ESCRS congress, Barcelona 2015, the latest findings from the ESCRS EUREQUO study on FLACS (Femto Laser Assisted Cataract Surgery). This observational retrospective study was performed in 16 centres of 10 countries. The study compared femtosecond technology in 2814 cases versus manual phacoemulsification in 4918 cases. They found superior astigmatism correction in femto-second group compared to manual group, but femto-second group showed more postoperative complications than manual group, such as higher PCO rates, corneal edema and uveitis.

In the presence of these negative results for the femto-second laser technology, the role of Medical Affairs in Alcon is to understand the study and create a document to help addressing potential questions. This scientific document basically explains the limitations, their potential influence on the results of the EUREQUO study and, based on the previous scientific literature, reports contradictory results, and different views. This “barrier-handler” document is distribute internally in the company and also was presented by the training team to the product managers to enable them to discuss with the doctors in case of questions.