Cataract Surgery: Presentation of the First Cases Performed with the POLARIS Robot (Horizon)
Seance of wednesday 10 june 2026 (Séance Académique d'Ophtalmologie : Chirurgie de la cataracte : les dernières évolution organisationnelles Bloc et Hors-Bloc et Robotique ( 1ères mondiales))
DOI number : 10.26299/x70a-9c51/emem.2026.24.06
Abstract
Cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgical procedure in France and worldwide, across all surgical specialties. It requires technical expertise, precision, reproducibility, speed, and reliability. The level of efficiency currently achieved through the combined performance of the human surgeon’s hand and modern phacoemulsification platforms is now remarkably high.
However, the standardization of the surgical procedure, the precise codification of its operative steps, and the continuously increasing surgical volume must now be considered in the context of a plateauing workforce of fully operational surgeons and the growing constraints of health-care economics. In parallel, technological advances now enable surgical robotics to integrate computational power, smooth mechanical actuation, multimodal data acquisition, and costs that are becoming increasingly compatible with clinical implementation.
To date, surgical robots have mainly been designed—and, in selected settings, used—as adjunctive assistance systems intended to enhance a particularly delicate step of a surgical procedure, rather than as autonomous platforms capable of performing an entire operation. Full automation of tasks with direct implications for human safety, and potentially human life, has already demonstrated its feasibility in the field of automotive transportation. A robotic platform specifically designed to perform human cataract surgery is now operational. It has already operated on ten patients safely. Its trajectory toward integration into our operating rooms has therefore now begun.
However, the standardization of the surgical procedure, the precise codification of its operative steps, and the continuously increasing surgical volume must now be considered in the context of a plateauing workforce of fully operational surgeons and the growing constraints of health-care economics. In parallel, technological advances now enable surgical robotics to integrate computational power, smooth mechanical actuation, multimodal data acquisition, and costs that are becoming increasingly compatible with clinical implementation.
To date, surgical robots have mainly been designed—and, in selected settings, used—as adjunctive assistance systems intended to enhance a particularly delicate step of a surgical procedure, rather than as autonomous platforms capable of performing an entire operation. Full automation of tasks with direct implications for human safety, and potentially human life, has already demonstrated its feasibility in the field of automotive transportation. A robotic platform specifically designed to perform human cataract surgery is now operational. It has already operated on ten patients safely. Its trajectory toward integration into our operating rooms has therefore now begun.