CATARACT EWAP DECEMBER 2022 7 Dr. Lubeck uses Active Fluidics with the Centurion Vision System. Source: David Lubeck, MD Contact information Lubeck: dmaclubes@earthlink.net A look at phaco fluidics by Ellen Stodola Editorial Co-Director This article originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of EyeWorld. It has been slightly modified and appears here with permission from the ASCRS Ophthalmic Services Corp. Understanding the basic concept of phaco fluidics is important for successful cataract surgery, particularly when differentiating among the systems available and how they can help surgeons and patients. David Lubeck, MD, broke it down in a discussion with EyeWorld. In beginning to discuss this topic, Dr. Lubeck said you need to go back to the basic premise of phaco fluidics. Everything done in the system, every parameter in passive/ gravity fluidics—including the bottle height, incision size, the phaco sleeve size, the second incision size, the height of the bed, the patient eye level, flow rate, vacuum setting, and the efficiency of the pump—is related to how stable the eye is going to be during cataract surgery. “You can’t look at only one part of the system to determine the fluidics,” he said. “You have to look at every piece of it to understand it, then if you want to maximize your intraocular stability, you have to be able to manipulate the different pieces of the system to your advantage.” The first component in fluidics stability is the infusion pressure, the pressure of the fluid going into the eye and how well you can maintain that at a constant level. When you have a gravity infusion system, the higher you raise the bottle, the higher the pressure you can create, but the more the pressure will drop when you have an occlusion break or when you have inefficiencies in the system beyond the fluid inflow, Dr. Lubeck said. “With a gravity fluidics system, you can raise the infusion pressure by raising the bottle, but in doing so you also are creating a higher gradient for surge and loss of intraocular stability,” he explained. Dr. Lubeck uses Active Fluidics with the Centurion Vision System (Alcon). With this system, he said the infusion of balanced salt solution is pressurized to a specific level. There is also a sensor and valve system in the machine that is constantly monitoring the pressure in the eye or the pressure in the tubing connected to the eye, and the valve is opening and closing in milliseconds to keep the intraocular environment as stable as possible, Dr. Lubeck said. He thinks this option provides more control and stability of the intraocular pressure than using a gravity infusion system. Dr. Lubeck noted that other companies also have advanced phaco systems. Other options in this class of advanced fluidics systems include Bausch + Lomb’s StableChamber using the Stellaris Vision Enhancement System and Johnson & Johnson Vision’s hybrid fluidics using the Veritas Vision System, as well as the QUATERA 700 from Carl Zeiss Meditec. You want the most stable possible intraocular environment for all procedures, Dr. Lubeck said, so once you use a machine with advanced fluidics, you continued on page 17
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