OBJECTIVES: Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure performed in developed countries. With increasing demand and tightening budgets, examination of every detail could make a difference for operating room efficiency. Pre-loaded IOL delivery systems have provided the means to potentially improve time efficiency in the cataract operating room. The objective of this study was to assess operating room efficiencies with a pre-loaded IOL delivery system compared to a manually loaded IOL delivery system.

METHODS: To assess operating room efficiency, a prospective observational, multicenter, time and motion study was conducted. Intra-operative time data was collected for staff involved in surgery when using the pre-loaded (UltraSert, N=93) and manually loaded (Monarch, N=103) IOL delivery systems. Findings from the time and motion study were applied to a hypothetical scenario comparing operating room time savings between pre-loaded and manually loaded systems for 1,000 annual cataract surgeries performed at a facility.

RESULTS: Overall, the pre-loaded system fared significantly (p<0.05) better compared to the manually loaded system in terms of average total surgical time (56.6 seconds vs. 89.6 seconds respectively). With the pre-loaded system, an average procedural efficiency gain of 33 seconds was recorded compared to manually loaded system. Reportedly, the average cataract surgery lasts 13.9 minutes (834 seconds). Therefore, the time savings associated with the pre-loaded delivery system could allow surgeons to perform one additional procedure per 25 cataract surgeries completed at their facilities. If 1,000 surgeries are performed annually at a cataract surgery facility, time-savings achieved with pre-loaded system would enable the surgeons to conduct an additional 40 surgeries. This would also help reduce surgery backlogs at the facilities.

CONCLUSIONS: The pre-loaded delivery system exhibited a significant decrease in total surgical case time compared to a manual delivery system; and time-savings achieved with the pre-loaded system should help improve cataract operating room efficiency.