PHACOEMULSIFICATION AND COMBINED MANAGEMENT OF INTRAOCULAR SILICONE OIL

We report two techniques in which cataract extraction is carried out b y phacoemulsification through a corneal incision. If silicone oil is t o be removed, a posterior continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis is perf ormed, allowing aspiration of oil through the capsulorhexis followed b y lens implantation into the remaining capsular bag. If silicone oil i s to be left in situ, the remaining capsule is removed, converting the cataract extraction to an intracapsular-type procedure that retains t he advantages of small incision surgery. These techniques offer good i mprovement in vision and retinal view with more rapid rehabilitation t han conventional large incision surgery. The 20% retinal redetachment is comparable to that of other studies and we have not encountered any other significant complications with these techniques.