A muscle-clamping system with an absorbable jaw clip to reduce suturing in strabismus surgery

Most of the ocular complications of strabismus surgery are related to needle trauma during the suturing of muscles. The authors have developed a muscle-clamping system with an absorbable jaw clip to facilitate exact techniques of eye muscle surgery and to reduce the risk of complications. The absorbable jaw clip is composed of a lower fixing body with three jaws and an upper supporting body. The clip is used to tie an extraocular muscle (which is moved and reattached with the membrane) with a single scleral bite. Using the absorbable jaw clip, the authors performed superior rectus recession on 16 eyes of eight rabbits. The authors examined the conjunctival injection, muscle adhesion power, and light microscopic findings at 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks postoperatively. The conjunctival injection diminished with time. Bond strengths ranged from 380 to 620 gram gravity, which is sufficient to withstand the normal pull of human extraocular muscles. Some inflammatory cells were found microscopically, and fibrosis increased with time. The muscle-clamping method with the newly invented clip was technically easy, fast, and exact, and it may reduce suturing and complications during strabismus surgery.