Alcon announced results from time and motion studies demonstrating superior efficiency with Unity Vitreoretinal Cataract System (VCS) for vitreoretinal and cataract surgery compared to the company's earlier surgical platforms, Constellation Vision System and Centurion Vision System with Active Sentry. The studies were presented during the 25th Euretina Congress, the Retina Society’s 58th Annual Scientific Meeting, and the 43rd Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, the company said in a press release. 

The first study—a prospective, observational, controlled, multisite time and motion study of 179 surgical cases—used objective, videography-based measurements to directly compare Unity VCS (n=92) against the Constellation Vision System (n=87) in vitreoretinal surgery. Investigators assessed the duration of console set-up, intraoperative time and tear-down time of 25-gauge vitrectomy surgeries. Study results demonstrated Unity VCS provides a 16% efficiency gain in overall workflow. Unity VCS also provides statistically significant efficiencies in console set-up (33%) and tear-down (38%), the company relayed.

The second study presented—an observational, pre-post, multisite time and motion analysis—evaluated console setup and full procedure turnover for 303 cataract surgeries using Unity VCS with either the Intelligent Sentry handpiece or the Active Sentry handpiece (n=142), compared to the Centurion Vision System with Active Sentry handpiece (n=161). The results of this study demonstrated that Unity VCS reduces cataract surgery turnover time by 6%. In addition, reductions in total energy into the eye (35%) and ultrasound time (8%), were observed, the company said.

Unity VCS is currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, India, Japan and the United States.