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Lucerne University and Swiss Medtech company partner on surgical instruments

Market maturity is expected within two years’ time

2023 March 27 – Researchers from the Lucerne-based university, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) are working together with the Swiss company Oertli Instrumente to develop improved instruments for cataract operations. 

The aim of the collaboration is to increase the efficiency of cataract operations while also maintaining and increasing safety levels for patients. 

“Shortening the duration of the operation always means that there is less interference with the eye,” explains project manager Silvio Di Nardo from HSLU’s Institute for Medical Technology in a press release issued by the university. “And this also reduces the risks associated with the procedure.”

The interdisciplinary project, supported by Innosuisse, the Swiss innovation agency, uses simulation models to investigate exactly what happens in the eye during surgery. The models were developed by researchers at HSLU’s Competence Center for Fluid Mechanics and Numerical Methods, while researchers from the Lucerne university’s Competence Center for Autonomous Systems and Robotics examined what exactly happens to the eye when the cataract-clouded lens is shattered by ultrasound.

The models now not only facilitate a profound understanding of what the eye goes through during a cataract operation, but the simulations can also calculate how changed instruments or variations in their control actually impact the surgery. 

The innovations made possible as a result of the research partnership with HSLU could potentially be brought to market maturity within the space of 24 months.