Cannulas Cannulas Cannulas

Recently, I read on an ophthalmology forum that there are some cannulas used during cataract surgery that are poorly manufactured. There is a specific type of cannula that we use during cataract surgery to “loosen” the cataract from the capsule it is contained in. That step in surgery is called hydrodissection, because the bulk of the cataract is “dissected” away from the capsule by squirting water in between the cataract bulk and the capsule. Someone was having trouble in which the capsule was tearing during surgery, and others suggested that one possible reason could be very small nicks or defects in the cannulas used during the hydrodissection step. If the cannula has a rough edge of any kind (e.g. a defect, a dent, or just an abnormal surface), it can easily rip the capsule and turn a normal cataract surgery into a long problematic surgery. It just goes to show how precise we have to be when doing cataract surgery!