EyeWorld Korea December 2025 Issue

SUPPLEMENT

Zeiss Supplement Transforming Every Stage of Cataract Surgery with AI and Advanced Technologies Supplement to EyeWorld Asia-Pacific December 2025

In a lunch symposium held on Saturday, 23 August 2025 at the 37th APACRS Ahmedabad, cataract and refractive surgeons discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced technologies are transforming every stage of cataract treatment from diagnosis to surgical procedure. With a new AI-guided OCT imaging assessment tool, a new trifocal intraocular lens (IOL), and a streamlined surgical cockpit, surgeons have the opportunity to experience an integrated and enhanced workflow in their surgical day-to-day. Illuminating Optical Coherence Tomography Scans with Integrated AI Surgeons are continually aiming to avoid poor cataract surgery outcomes and complications related to the surgery, refractive out comes, or a wrong IOL choice. “Our job as physicians is to make our patients’ lives better,” Ronald YEOH, FRCS, FRCOphth, DO, FAMS (Singapore) said. Dr. Yeoh further explained that many med ical errors occur when surgeons are ignorant of the options, forget to investigate an issue, or forget to look at the results. Regardless of which IOL is chosen, surgeons need to ask the question of whether the macula is healthy. At times, the cataract may be dense enough that it affects a patient’s vision. Thus, Dr. Yeoh recommends that all patients undergoing cataract surgery have a macular optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan. “You all know that, but I think it is not universal that everybody does OCT,” Dr. Yeoh remarked. In Dr. Yeoh’s experience after a multifocal IOL implantation, an unhappy patient came back to him several weeks later with noted macular edema and parafoveal epiretinal membrane (ERM). Dr. Yeoh had been unable to catch the parafoveal ERM since he had only looked at one foveal scan. “Why does this happen? There are so many steps during a new patient cataract consult,” Dr. Yeoh said, including taking a history, performing biometry, taking OCT scans, examining the cataracts, reviewing investigations, and discussing IOL choices.

For macular OCT scans, Dr. Yeoh will typically look at the macula first before taking the photograph. “I want to stress that looking at a single macular scan is not enough,” he said. Surgeons should comprehensively scan to pick up foveal and parafoveal pathology. This process may be difficult since some patients have macular pathology that even retinal surgeons have difficulty picking up. Macular pathologies can be subtle, may be obscured by cata ract opacities, or may not be able to be detected due to patients squeezing their eyes during the exam. “This is where the new ZEISS CIRRUS PathFinder™ comes in,” Dr. Yeoh said. The CIRRUS PathFinder™ utilizes AI in a simple and quick way to screen for pathology. It is a retina-trained deep learning decision support tool that streamlines the review of macular OCT scans by automatically identifying scans that may need closer review. “It acquires, qualifies, and detects the pathology and then flags it up for us with colored bars,” Dr. Yeoh explained. The software has been trained by retinal specialists who have graded over 75,000 B-scans with 60 different macular pathologies. With a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 93%, the CIRRUS PathFinder™ has been able to identify macular findings such as Subretinal fluid (SRF), intraretinal fluid, retinal pigment epithelium atrophy, retinal pigment epithelium elevation, disruption of inner retinal layers, disruption of the vitreoretinal interface, and inner segment/outer segment disruption. In a normal CIRRUS OCT scan, the imaging may look normal. However, once the surgeon turns on the PathFinder™, the OCT scan may be flagged by small red bars which indicate pathology in the macular area. “This technology is perfect for the cataract surgeon,” Dr. Yeoh stated. “These surgeons have a lot of things to do and want a quick glance at the scan.” Dr. Yeoh has found that the CIRRUS PathFinder™ is a reasonably priced add-on tool that is easy to use as a quick screening tool. Having to jump through many hoops or press many buttons to

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EyeWorld Asia-Pacific | December 2025