Subjective evaluation of intraoperative performance of DisCoVisc in complex ocular environments

Abstract

Purpose To subjectively evaluate the intraoperative characteristics of DisCoVisc during phacoemulsification in complex ocular environments. Patients and methods In this prospective observational study, two experienced surgeons (ARV and CZ) performed phacoemulsification on 100 consecutive patients with cataract associated with complex ocular environments. Inclusion criteria were eyes with shallow anterior chambers (anterior chamber depth (ACD) of o2.1 mm), inadequate pupillary dilation (3 mm), dense cataract, and white mature cataract. The surgeons subjectively assessed the endpoints at each phase of phacoemulsification and various behavioural aspects of the ophthalmic viscosurgical devices (OVDs) were subsequently evaluated. Results The distribution was as follows: eyes with white mature cataract (n ¼ 18), eyes with grades 4 and5 cataract (n ¼ 56), eyes with co-existing shallow ACD o2 mm (n ¼ 24), and co-existing small pupil size o2 mm (n ¼ 18). DisCoVisc behaved like a moderately cohesive viscoelastic in 94% of the cases. Injection of viscoelastic was easy in 38 (38%) eyes and very easy in 62 (62%) eyes. Visualization after the viscoelastic injection was excellent in 74% of the eyes. During phacoemulsification, DisCoVisc was moderately dispersive at all the stages of emulsification. The bag maintenance during IOL implantation was excellent in 56% eyes; IOL implantation was easy in 26% of the eyes and difficult in 20% of the eyes. Surgeons found viscoelastic removal easy in 68% of the eyes. At the time of OVD removal, DisCoVisc behaved like both a dispersive and a cohesive viscoelastic in 96% of the eyes.Conclusion DisCoVisc provides both cohesive and dispersive properties. DisCoVisc alone, even in complex ocular environments, enabled the surgeon to achieve good intraoperative performance.

A clinical comparison between DisCoVisc and 2% hydroxypropylmethylcellulose in phacoemulsification: a fellow eye study

“…One previous study (24) evaluating DisCoVisc in complex ocular environments showed that this OVD facilitated good intraoperative performance in complex cases and was effective in simple cataract surgeries; however, this study was observational and non-comparative.…”