Alcon, the global leader in eye care dedicated to helping people see brilliantly, today announced the launch of the UNITY® Vitreoretinal Cataract System (VCS) and UNITY® Cataract System (CS) in India. The new, versatile platform offers two configurations, a combined console (VCS) which is now available, and a standalone cataract system (CS), which will be commercially available in the coming months. This platform is designed to deliver superior efficiency for vitreoretinal and cataract surgery, while enabling exceptional outcomes for patients. The systems feature many first-to-market technologies designed to deliver transformative surgical innovation for cataract and vitreoretinal surgery, including UNITY 4D Phaco, HYPERVIT® 30K and the advanced UNITY Intelligent Fluidics system. With UNITY VCS/CS, surgeons can operate at more physiologic conditions without compromising efficiency.
“Alcon has a long legacy of advancing phaco and vitreoretinal technology for surgical ophthalmology. With UNITY VCS/CS, we are introducing more than a dozen innovations designed to deliver significant efficiencies for surgery centers across the globe,” said Amar Vyas, Country Head of Alcon India. “We are especially proud to bring these next-generation equipment solutions to India, a country with a rapidly growing demand for advanced eye care. By equipping ophthalmic surgeons with cutting-edge technology, we aim to better support healthcare professionals with enhanced stability and efficiency and elevate the standard of care for patients across India.”
It is estimated that over 8 million cataract surgeries are performed annually in India, making it one of the highest volumes of cataract surgeries globally. The workload of surgeons is also very high with just one ophthalmologist for every 100,000 people.
The combination vitreoretinal and cataract system intelligently transforms vitreoretinal and cataract surgery with first-to-market innovations. With the introduction of UNITY Intelligent Fluidics, a unique pressure and flow control technology with real-time sensing, surgeons can expect surgical stability and efficiency at each step of the procedure. Significant advancements in instrumentation for vitreoretinal surgery include:
UNITY 27 Gauge Portfolio: Proprietary Consumables with dynamic stiffener technology are designed to transcend the barriers of current 27-gauge instrumentation and deliver the stiffness of 25+ instruments or better, in a smaller gauge.
UNITY TetraSpot: A multi-spot illuminated laser probe that reduces laser application time by up to three times, enabling surgeons to deliver one, two, or four simultaneous laser spots for spot versatility within a given procedure.
UNITY Illumination: Reduces blue light exposure to the eye and includes customizable light profiles for excellent tissue visualization, while providing up to 10,000 hours of reliability.
The UNITY VCS/CS system is designed to allow cataract surgeons to operate with stability and efficiency at more physiologic conditions through its Intelligent Fluidics functionality. This new technology maintains stable intraocular pressure (IOP) to help support patient comfort during surgery, while allowing for higher average vacuum during lens removal. Other surgical performance enhancements include:
UNITY Intelligent Sentry: maintains anterior chamber stability while improving upon Centurion with Active Sentry, reducing post-occlusion surge volumes by 44%.
UNITY Thermal Sentry: the first phacoemulsification handpiece that features a thermal sensor that works with a proprietary algorithm to estimate incision temperature in real-time and regulate ultrasound power.
UNITY 4D Phaco: delivers two times faster nucleus removal than OZIL with 41% less energy to the eye and 48% less cumulative dissipated energy (CDE).
“I perform approximately 1,500 cataract surgeries per year and UNITY VCS/CS has streamlined my surgical procedures while enabling us to deliver exceptional patient outcomes,” said Dr. Hisaharu Suzuki, Japan. “The UNITY 4D phaco technology in particular has been impressive, breaking up even large, dense cataracts efficiently, while maintaining more physiologic IOP throughout the surgery. Beyond the device performance, UNITY VCS/CS expedites my surgical workflow and introduces significant usability improvements—which my entire team greatly appreciates.”
UNITY VCS/CS is the first product to become available from Alcon’s UNITY portfolio of next-generation surgical equipment solutions. UNITY VCS/CS users can benefit from Intelligent Services Solutions, including select remote service offerings and predictive service capabilities to minimize downtime. UNITY VCS/CS have received Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approval in India.