Dodick laser phacolysis: thermal effects

To gather experimental data on whether Dodick laser phacolysis leads to corneal or scleral burns.

The Eye Department, County Hospital Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

The study was done using a pulsed neodymium:YAG (Nd:YAG) laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm; energy, 10 mJ; and duration of pulses, 14 ns. The light pulse is carried by a 400 microns quartz fiber to the laser phacolysis probe. The laser light hits a titanium target inside the tip, causing an optical breakdown and thus a shock wave. The generation of both plasma and the shock disrupt the nuclear material. The temperature at the ultrasonic phaco and laser phacolysis tip was measured under air and balanced salt solution (BSS) in a test chamber and in the anterior chambers of eye-bank eyes.

Ultrasonic phacoemulsification led to a difference in temperature up to 55.3 degrees C under air, 12 degrees C in BSS, and 10.9 degrees C in the anterior chamber. There was no clinical significant heat generated by the laser phacolysis tip.

This initial in vitro study demonstrates that the well-known risk of the tissue heating (i.e., phaco burn) does not occur with Dodick laser phacolysis, even when the irrigation flow is slow or discontinued.