Abstract

GIBELALDE, A.; MENDICUTE, J.; BIDAGUREN, A.  and  IRIGOYEN, C.. Prospective randomized trial comparing Discovisc^® versus Healon^® in phacoemulsification. Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol [online]. 2007, vol.82, n.8, pp.489-494. ISSN 0365-6691.

Objective: To compare the intraoperative behaviour of both, DisCoVisc^® and Healon^® used as viscoelastics in cataract surgery. Method: We prospectively evaluated 35 patients with cataracts who underwent phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation. Patients were randomized into two groups. Group A included 17 patients in where Healon^® was used as a viscoelastic, whereas group B included 18 patients in where the viscoelastic used was DisCoVisc^®. After each procedure, the surgeon filled in a questionnaire describing the behaviour of the viscoelastic during the different stages of phacoemulsification. Results: DisCoVisc^® behaved as both cohesive and dispersive viscoelastic during capsulorrhexis, phacoemulsification and viscoelastic aspiration, whereas Healon^® acted as a cohesive substance during all surgical stages. DisCoVisc^® enabled better visualization and transparency during all the surgical stages and maintains the capsular bag better during the intraocular lens implantation. Viscoelastic aspiration was easier with Healon^®. Conclusions: DisCoVisc^® is a new viscosurgical device with both cohesive and dispersive properties, which avoids using two different viscoelastics to improve the performance at different surgical stages. DisCoVisc^® has been shown to be more transparent and provides better anterior chamber maintenance when compared with Healon^®. Healon^® was more easily aspirated due to its cohesive character.

Keywords : Viscoelastics; Cohesivity; Dispersivity; Cataract surgery; Phacoemulsification.

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