A Comparison of Three Phacoemulsification Techniques in Cataract Surgery

Purpose:To compare the parameters of three phacoemulsification techniques (divide-and-conquer, DC; stop-and-chop, SC; phaco-chop, PC) in a series of cataract surgeries. Methods:60 consecutive eyes were randomized to receive cataract surgery using DC, SC, or PC techniques (20 eyes each). Patients with ocular diseases other than cataract (pseudoexfoliatio syndrome; glaucoma; etc) were not enrolled. No complications occurred during the three surgical procedures. Surgery was performed by a single, experienced operator (S.D.) using the Alcon Infiniti® Vision System with OZil® Torsional handpiece. The following parameters were measured for each patient: Surgery Duration (SurgDur, minutes), UltraSound Total Time (USTT), Cumulative Energy Dissipation (CED), Phaco Time (PhT, seconds), Phaco Power (PhP), Torsional Time (ToT, seconds), Torsional Amplitude (ToA), Aspiration Time (AsT). Inter-group differences were inspected by means of Wilcoxon test. Results:Mean data for each technique are given in the Table. Conclusions:The three techniques obtained similar results with the exception of a significant improvement of PhP and ToA with PC technique.