Phaco handpiece with built-in pressure sensor boosts safety, reduces ultrasound use
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
VIENNA — A pressure sensor built in a phaco handpiece effectively prevents occlusion break surge and helps deliver less energy in the eye, with a parallel shortening in surgical time.
“If we spare energy, especially longitudinal energy, if we have shorter ultrasound time and overall shorter surgery, that will lead to prevention of endothelial cell loss and increased patient comfort,” Antoine Brezin, MD, said at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting.
In the SASCA multicenter study, the Active Sentry phaco handpiece with integrated pressure sensor was compared with a traditional pressure sensor, both used with the Centurion system (Alcon), in two groups of 800 and 632 cataract patients, respectively. At the end of the procedure, data were retrieved from the system on level of energy used, ultrasound time, and respective use of longitudinal and torsional energy.
“The pressure sensor built in the handpiece leads to immediate reaction from the machine to adjust the pressure. In the traditional handpiece where the sensor is within the phacoemulsifier itself rather than in the handpiece, there can be a lag of time and an effect of transmission of the pressure to the tubing before the sensor reacts to a variation in pressure,” Brezin said.
The use of Active Sentry resulted in an overall 14% reduction in cumulative dissipated energy and a 12% reduction in ultrasound.
“This meant that the surgeon was sufficiently confident to press on the pedal and use high vacuum rather than high ultrasound to complete the phaco cases. That led in parallel to an 11% reduction in the duration of surgery,” Brezin said.
Further analysis showed a 9% reduction in torsional energy and a highly significant 34% reduction in longitudinal energy, the most deleterious for the corneal endothelium.
Collapse
Brezin AP, et al. Phacoemulsification using a handpiece with a built-in pressure sensor reduces the energy required for cataract surgery: Final results from the SASCA (Study of Active Sentry in Cataract Surgery) multicenter study. Presented at: European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting; Sept. 8-12, 2023; Vienna.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts