Trapezoids and Squares

In the January 2024 edition of the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, Biyue Tu and colleagues published a study about different incision shapes in cataract surgery.

When we take cataracts out, there is usually one “primary incision” that we do the cataract surgery through. There is often another “side-port incision” that is smaller than the primary one. There may be more than one side-port incision made, but there is usually at least one.

Tu et al investigated two different shapes of the side-port incision–near-square and trapezoidal. The difference is that the outside portion of the trapezoidal incision is much larger. In their study, they found that using near-square shape resulted in faster surgery than trapezoidal shape. Is this a huge advantage? In their discussion, it was suggested that the near-square incision was just easier to make, and so it was quicker to make. If that’s the advantage of the near-square over the trapezoidal, it doesn’t seem to be that impressive.