[Recent advances in femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery]

As the leading cause of blindness, the type of surgery performed to remove cataracts has evolved from Intracapsular to Extracapsular and to phacoemulsification. Advantages of femtosecond laser include high instantaneous power, strong penetration, short pulse-duration and micro-precision present superior accuracy, predictability and safety to cataract surgery, while also minimizing injury to surrounding ocular tissue. It mainly assists in the procedures of anterior capsulotomy, lens fragmentation, clear corneal incision and limbal relaxing incision creation. However, compared to conventional phacoemulsification, problems such as the minimization of complications and difficulties in conducting peer-reviewed studies with a longer follow-up period and large sample, as well as coverage of added costs remain untracked.The purpose of this review is to outline the advantages and disadvantages as well as clinical value of this evolving technology compared to conventional phacoemulsification.