Ensuring Patient Satisfaction with Premium IOLs

Cataract patients have very high expectations, particularly when they’re paying out of pocket for premium IOLs. Surgeons are challenged daily to meet those lofty expectations and satisfy their patients.

Success hinges on three factors: 1) a consistent, systematic approach, 2) well-managed patient expectations and 3) excellent outcomes.

1 A consistent, systematic approach

Every cataract surgeon has consistent testing procedures. The best ones have systems that provide, in a time-efficient manner, all the information they need to make the best clinical decisions. Marco’s suite of diagnostic technologies provides just that.

By combining the OPD-Scan wavefront aberrometer/corneal analyzer and the TRS-5100 digital refractor, surgeons get a comprehensive profile of each patient’s total visual system in minutes. The OPD-Scan first harvests over 20 diagnostic measurements while assessing the integrity of the full optical pathway and establishing the refraction start points. The TRS then completes all necessary refractions with unprecedented digital speed and accuracy. Marco has branded this process as “XFraction^SM”.

Some surgeons incorporate these technologies in an existing lane configuration, while others use Marco’s EPIC workstation platform. Both systems deliver all the information surgeons need to meet patients’ high expectations for surgery.

“Some people might see us looking at angle kappa and corneal spherical aberration and wonder if it’s overkill,” says Farrell “Toby” Tyson, MD, a refractive cataract/glaucoma eye surgeon at the Cape Coral Eye Center in Florida. “We’re aiming for perfection, and if we’re not trying to find every data point that can help us get there, we’re never going to reach it.”

2 Well-managed patient expectations

Using the Marco system, surgeons can show patients their refraction and the physical state of their eyes before and after surgery. For example, before surgery, patients can compare their day refraction to their night refraction or see the refraction they’ll achieve with a premium IOL versus a standard one. After surgery, patients can see how the procedure achieved its goals.

Patients are more satisfied because they’ve seen what’s happening in a concrete way: This is what’s wrong, this is how we’ll fix it, and finally, this is how we fixed it. Surgeons set expectations before surgery, including scientific measures for success to accompany the patient’s subjective opinion.

3 Excellent outcomes

To achieve excellent outcomes, surgeons need accurate data that will help them choose the right lens. Factors like angle kappa, spherical aberrations, differences in day and night refractions, and asymmetrical astigmatism all affect lens choice and patient satisfaction after surgery.

Using the Marco system, surgeons see the asymmetric astigmatism that rules out toric lenses. They get the wavefront data they need to choose a lens that enhances contrast sensitivity. They even avoid night vision and multifocal complaints.

Night driving problems are such a common complaint that surgeons gain a great deal by increasing patient satisfaction in this area alone. “The OPD-Scan system allows you to take measurements and refractions with both mesopic and photopic pupils,” Dr. Tyson explains. “This information, combined with wavefront data, helps us to adjust the prescription to ensure good vision for nighttime driving.”

Dr. Tyson also depends on his Marco system to measure angle kappa for multifocal patients. “We used to occasionally get surprised when a patient who appeared to be an excellent multifocal candidate had below-target vision after surgery. Now we know that the cause was large angle kappa. With the OPD-Scan, I know the angle kappa and choose the right lens.”

This attention to detail — a must in a world where expectations are high and premium IOLs are ever more sophisticated — helps ensure that outcomes are top notch and patients are happy with their cataract surgery.