Modification of a soft contact lens for use during irrigation and aspiration in the penetrating keratoplasty triple procedure.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to design and test a new soft contact lens with 2 holes for improvement of both visibility and the rate of lens cortex aspiration during cataract surgery using the penetrating keratoplasty triple procedure. Two groups of 9 age-matched patients underwent the penetrating keratoplasty triple procedure with or without the newly designed contact lens. The use of the new soft contact lens reduced the time required for irrigation and aspiration of the lens cortex from 183.8 +/- 92.2 to 121.2 +/- 27.9 seconds (P<.05); the total operative and open-sky times also significantly decreased. In addition, use of the lens greatly improved visibility of the surgical field during cataract extraction. The newly designed soft contact lens thus improves management of the lens cortex during the penetrating keratoplasty triple procedure.