Temperature Alteration in the Aqueous Humor Using Balanced Tip During Phacoemulsification
Purpose
Although a bent tip has been thought essential to the torsional vibration, a similar effect is obtained by a straight Balanced TipTM. Using a Balanced Tip, we compared the effect of the longitudinal and torsional oscillation used with a new or an old sleeve to the aqueous humor (AH) temperature.
Methods
Phacoemulsification was performed by the CenturionTM (Alcon) machine using Balanced TipTM with the following settings, US power, 100%; vacuum pressure, 50 mmHg; aspiration flow rate, 18 mL/minute; and intraocular pressure, 36mmHg (bottle height of 50 cm) in porcine eyes. The AH temperature was measured by a temperature probe set in the anterior chamber during phacoemulsification with 5 combinations; torsional oscillation (OZ) and longitudinal oscillation (L) with a new (N) or an old (O) sleeve, and the Ozil12 tip with a new sleeve used with InfinitiTM (Alcon) machine.
Results
Before US, there was no significant difference in the AH temperature among 5 groupsiP<0.05AANOVA testj. After 1 minute oscillation, the AH temperature (ºC) was 30.52 ± 0.94 in OZ (N); 31.72 ± 0.95 in OZ (O); 39.46 ± 0.83 in L (N); 42.18 ± 0.73 in L (O), and 28.96 ± 0.78 in Ozil 12 (N). There were significant differences between each group in 5 combinations (P<0.05, SNK test).
Conclusion
Although the AH temperature rise was smaller with the torsional than the longitudinal oscillation with a Balanced Tip, the bent tip was better in the suppression of the temperature rise. In addition, the new sleeve seemed superior to the old sleeve in cooling the tip that contributed to restrain the AH temperature rise during phacoemulsification.