Phaco Surgery and Its Types

A young woman undergoing eye operation

In Phaco technique, a small incision is placed in the eye, and a hollow Phaco needle is introduced through the opening. On giving energy through the tip of the Phaco needle, the cataract lens gets dissolved and is sucked out through this needle. An artificial lens called a foldable Intra-ocular lens is now injected through this small opening. Once inside the eye, it opens up and serves to replace the original lens. Since the eye-opening is very small and designed specially, it self-seals, and no sutures are required. Hence this procedure is also popularly known as “Stitchless” cataract surgery.

Regular Phaco Cataract Surgery

It is a surgical technique wherein the cataract is emulsified using ultrasonic energy. The incision size is about 3.0mm.

Micro Phaco Cataract Surgery

This is the technique where the cataractous lens is dissolved and aspirated through a 2.2mm micro incision and a special super soft Intra Ocular Lens is introduced through the same incision. The incision in the Microphaco technique is much smaller than the incision in a Regular Phaco technique. Micro phaco is designed to speed the recovery of vision, improve visual outcomes and reduce the restriction on your activities after the surgery. The machines used for Microphaco is either the Centurian machine from Alcon (USA) or the Stellaris machine from Bausch & Lomb (USA), both of which are in use at the Eye7 Chaudhary Eye Centre. Features of Micro-Phaco:

  • Micro-incision
  • No stitch
  • Walk in- Walk out Surgery
  • Faster recovery
  • Reduced need for glasses
MICS machine

Cylinder correction in Phaco Cataract Surgery

The cylinder component in Phaco Cataract Surgery can be corrected by two ways:

  1. Toric Lenses with Verion Digital Axis Marking
  2. Toric Lenses with Manual Marking

Read in detail about cylinder correction at Eye7.in/Cataract-Surgery.