A comparison of prechop and conventional stop-and-chop techniques applied in phacoemulsification

Abstract:

Objective：To explore the application of prechop and conventional stop-and-chop techniques in phacoemulsification and to compare their clinical efficacy and effect on corneal endothelial cells. Methods：Sixty patients（60 eyes） with cataract collected from our hospital from January 2016 to April 2017 were enrolled in the study and were divided into group A（30 eyes，phacoemulsification performed using prechop technique） and group B（30 eyes，phacoemulsification performed using stop-and-chop technique） by surgical approach，with 30 cases in each group. Patients in both groups were observed for surgical effect and changes in corneal endothelial cells. Results：Group A had significantly lower actual ultrasonic energy and significantly shorter effective ultrasonic duration than group B[（50.36±2.47）% vs. （55.42±3.28）%，（56.56±10.20） s vs. （67.79±11.45） s，P<0.05]. A repeated measures analysis of variances showed that there were significant differences in the best corrected visual acuity，endothelial cell density，and proportion of hexagonal cells measured at different time points（P<0.05），with no time-group interaction effects observed in the above three indices in the two groups（P>0.05）. Corneal edema was significantly milder in group A than in group B one day after operation（P<0.05）；the corneal edema resolved seven days after operation with no significant difference observed between the two groups（P>0.05）. Conclusion：Both surgical approaches have a good clinical effect；the prechop technique can effectively reduce ultrasonic energy and shorten ultrasonic duration in a cataract surgery；meanwhile，it can reduce the injury of corneal endothelial cells and is easy to operate. All these make it worthy of clinical application.