A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF CONTINUOUS TEAR CURVILINEAR CAPSULORHEXIS VERSUS CAPSULORHEXIS PRODUCED BY RADIOFREQUENCY ENDODIATHERMY

Capsulorhexis using radio-frequency endodiathermy may confer some adva ntages over continuous tear curvilinear capsulorhexis (CTCC) in certai n clinical situations. It is unclear whether a capsulorhexis produced in this fashion has the clinically advantageous elasticity and resista nce to tearing that a CTCC has been demonstrated to have. To investiga te this, a test of capsular elasticity was carried out on pairs of eye s obtained from an eye bank, 42 eyes of 21 patients in total, using mo dified digital vernier calipers. One eye of each pair had a CTCC, the other a diathermy capsulorhexis (DC). The elasticity of the capsule in both groups was expressed by comparing the circumference of the capsu lotomy at rest with its circumference at rupture. The mean capsular el asticity of the CTCC group was significantly greater than that of the DC group (p<<0.001). The capsular edge in both groups was examined usi ng scanning electron microscopy, and the difference in morphology appe ars to be the source of the difference in elasticity.