Effect of phaco tip diameter on efficiency and chatter.

Purpose: To evaluate 3 phacoemulsification tips of different sizes and determine which size is most efficient in lens fragment removal using 3 ultrasound (US) approaches.

Setting: John A. Moran Eye Center Laboratories, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

Design: Experimental study.

Methods: Porcine lens nuclei were formalin-soaked for 2 hours then divided into 2.0 mm cubes; 1.1 mm, 0.9 mm, and 0.7 mm phaco tips were used with torsional and micropulsed US. The 1.1 mm tips were unavailable for torsional US, so 0.9 mm and 0.7 mm tips were used. Efficiency (amount of time for lens removal) and chatter (number of lens-fragment repulsions from the tip) were determined.

Results: The mean phacoemulsification efficiency was highest with the 0.9 mm tip for all US variations. There were statistically significant differences between the 0.9 mm and 0.7 mm tips with micropulsed US (0.8 seconds ± 0.29 [SD] versus 1.4 ± 0.93 seconds; P=.0112) and transversal US (0.8 ± 0.17 seconds versus 1.4 ± 0.89 seconds; P=.0065). There was no significant difference between 0.9 mm and 0.7 mm tips with torsional US or between the 1.1 mm and 0.9 mm tips with micropulsed or transversal US; however, trends were identical, with 0.9 mm tips performing better than 0.7 mm and 1.1 mm tips.

Conclusion: With all 3 systems, the 0.9 mm tip was most efficient, with the fewest outliers and smallest standard deviation.

Financial Disclosure: No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.