Posterior-assisted levitation in cataract surgery

Posterior-assisted levitation (PAL) is a surgical maneuver for dealing with rupture of the posterior capsule or zonular dehiscence with threatened or actual subluxation of the nucleus or entire lens into the vitreous during phacoemulsification. PAL is often unknown or overlooked, especially by young or inexperienced surgeons.

The advantages of PAL are, first, that it often enables completion of phacoemulsification and intraocular lens placement without conversion to an open eye with nuclear expression and second, it prevents luxation of nucleus, nuclear fragments, or the lens into the vitreous avoiding the necessity for trans pars plana vitrectomy (TPPV)-lensectomy. PAL has recently been criticized by vitreoretinal surgeons as dangerous and to be avoided. However, there is no large series or controlled study showing that the PAL maneuver is associated with an excessive complication rate as compared to cases of nuclear or lens subluxation in the vitreous managed by TPPV-lensectomy with or without previous PAL.

PAL is a simple technique that can be extremely helpful. In cases in which the PAL maneuver is unsuccessful and in cases with complete luxation of nucleus or lens into the vitreous, the patient should be referred for TPPV-lensectomy.