New phacoemulsification tip with a grooved, threaded-tip construction

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Surgical Technology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Phacoemulsification is a key step in cataract surgery.
• Standard phaco tips can exhibit instability during lens fragmentation.
• Improving ultrasonic tip efficiency is crucial for surgical outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To visually compare ultrasonic tip vibrations between a novel threaded phaco tip and a standard phaco tip.
• To assess the impact of internal grooves on tip performance during continuous ultrasound.
• To evaluate phacoemulsification efficiency and stability.

Main Methods:

• An experimental study using ultra-high-speed digital video imaging.
• A threaded phaco tip was created by adding internal grooves to a standard tip.
• Phacoemulsification was performed on human lens samples and chestnut pieces.

Main Results:

• The threaded tip generated significantly more cavitation than the standard tip.
• The threaded tip demonstrated reduced chattering and improved tip stability.
• Effective phacoemulsification time was significantly shorter with the threaded tip (6.0s vs 15.4s).

Conclusions:

• The threaded phaco tip exhibits enhanced cavitation and holding power.
• The simple threaded construction offers superior phacoemulsification efficiency and stability.
• This design represents a potentially significant advancement in ultrasonic cataract surgery technology.