High-speed Beveled Tip Versus Standard Tip Vitrectomy Probe: A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial

To compare the efficiency of the advanced ultravit beveled vitrector probe (10,000 cuts per minute) to the current standard ultravit highspeed (7500 cuts per minute) vitrector probe.

A prospective, randomized controlled trial was conducted on patients undergoing routine vitrectomy surgery for epiretinal membrane, full-thickness macular hole, and vitreous opacities. Patients were randomly assigned to undergo PPV with the ultravit highspeed probe (Probe 1) or the advanced ultravit beveled probe (Probe 2). The main outcome measure was time to completion of core vitrectomy and vitreous base shave.

Forty patients were enrolled in this study, 20 in each cohort. The average time to completion of core vitrectomy was 10.4 +/- 1.8 min in the Probe 1 cohort compared to 9.7 +/- 2 min in the Probe 2 cohort (P = 0.21). The average time to completion of vitreous base shave was 9.6 +/- 2.7 min in the Probe 1 cohort compared to 9.4 +/- 1.8 min in the Probe 2 cohort (P = 0.39).

In the current study, the advanced ultravit beveled probe was noninferior to the ultravit highspeed vitrectomy probe when looking at the time to completion of core vitrectomy and vitreous base shave. The increased cut rate did not affect the efficiency of vitreous removal.