SIZE OF THE LENS NUCLEUS SEPARATED BY HYDRODISSECTION

We measured the extracted central nucleus (diameter and thickness) of 88 eyes (average patient age, 72 years) undergoing extracapsular catar act extraction (ECCE). The average diameter was 6.51 +/- 0.75 mm; the average thickness, 2.96 +/- 0.33 mm. Since the average lens diameter i s approximately 10 mm, a corneoscleral incision of 7 to 8 mm in chord length should be sufficient for its removal in most ECCE cases. Accumu lation of these data and further analysis correlating them with age an d degree and type of cataract in larger series will be useful in deter mining the smallest possible incision size required for individual pat ients.