Live surgery outcomes in cataract surgery

Purpose To evaluate and compare the outcomes of live surgery (LS) and no-live surgery (NLS) on cataract surgery with implantation of different types of intraocular lenses (IOLs). Methods Retrospective, contralateral eye, case series of patients that underwent cataract surgery in live or non-live view during two consecutive editions of national meetings. Both eyes of the same patients were implanted with the same IOL, one in LS and the other in NLS. Results 108 eyes of 54 patients, aged between 50 and 82 (72 +/- 8.2) and implanted with different types of IOLs, were reviewed. Both eyes in each patient were well matched at baseline in terms of intraocular biometric characteristics, corneal curvature and endothelial cell density (ECD) (p > 0.05). There are no statistically significant differences between the biometric and topographic parameters, aberrometric data and the loss of ECD in the post-operative outcomes (p > 0.05). However, comparing the different types of IOLs, there is a significant loss of ECD in eyes implanted with a toric IOL during LS (p = 0.0014 and p = 0.04, in 2017 and 2018 edition respectively). Conclusions In this series of live cataract surgery, eyes operated in LS or NLS have comparable outcomes, underlying the importance and the benefits of live view in terms of medical education and the low-risk of complications. Nevertheless, we have found a significant increase in ECD loss in patients implanted with toric IOLs during LS.