Comparison of thermal features associated with 2 phacoemulsification machines.

Purpose: To determine the thermal characteristics of the Legacy Advantec and Sovereign WhiteStar phacoemulsification machines during different clinically relevant scenarios.

Setting: In vitro study.

Methods: In water, temperature was recorded continuously on the sleeve in an artificial chamber, and the increase in temperature over baseline after 60 seconds of ultrasound was determined. This was done for continuous ultrasound, 50 ms on and 50 ms off (pulse), 6 ms on and 12 ms off (WhiteStar; Sovereign only) with aspiration blocked and not blocked, and with 100 g and 200 g weights suspended from the sleeve.

Results: Comparing temperature increase per 20% machine power increments, Sovereign ran hotter than Legacy Advantec for continuous ultrasound (2.31x) and pulse (2.23x). Blocking aspiration increased temperature over the unblocked state. Pulsing decreased temperature by 51% (Legacy Advantec, pulse), 52% (Sovereign, pulse), and 64% (WhiteStar). Weights had much more effect on the Legacy Advantec: 3.5 times more going from baseline to 100 g weights and 3.2 times more going from 100 to 200 g weights. For all these comparisons, the P value was less than 0.0001.

Conclusions: The machines behaved fundamentally differently, with the Legacy Advantec controlling stroke length and Sovereign controlling a fixed power at any setting. Therefore, workload had a much bigger impact on Legacy Advantec thermal characteristics. Pulsing decreased heat produced directly related to the duty cycle. The most dangerous incision burn scenario is with continuous ultrasound, aspiration blocked, and a heavy workload.