COMPARISON OF CILIARY SULCUS FIXATION TECHNIQUES FOR POSTERIOR CHAMBER INTRAOCULAR LENSES

Objective: To anatomically and histologically evaluate suturing techni ques for sulcus fixation of posterior chamber intraocular lenses. Sett ing: Kitano Hospital, Osaka, Japan. Methods: The reproducibility of th ree suturing techniques (perpendicular to the eye wall; parallel to th e iris; midway between perpendicular to the eye wall and parallel to t he iris) were evaluated in a postmortem eye. Histologic sections of an other eye and ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) images of 21 normal eyes were evaluated to determine the safety zone for the needle to avoid da maging adjacent structures. Results: The ciliary sulcus was completely penetrated in the three techniques in 100, 40, and 70% of cases, resp ectively. The histologic sections and the UBM images showed that when sutures were placed perpendicular to the eye wall, there was the possi bility of postoperative angle closure and suturing parallel to the iri s might damage adjacent structures because of a narrow safety zone. Co nclusions: The needle should penetrate obliquely, as in the technique in which the suturing is midway between perpendicular to the eye wall and parallel to the iris. This technique provides better reproducibili ty and causes less damage to adjacent tissue.