Comparison of ciliary sulcus fixation techniques for posterior chamber intraocular lenses.

OBJECTIVE

To anatomically and histologically evaluate suturing techniques for sulcus fixation of posterior chamber intraocular lenses.

SETTING

Kitano Hospital, Osaka, Japan.

METHODS

The reproducibility of three suturing techniques (perpendicular to the eye wall; parallel to the iris; midway between perpendicular to the eye wall and parallel to the iris) were evaluated in a postmortem eye. Histologic sections of another eye and ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) images of 21 normal eyes were evaluated to determine the safety zone for the needle to avoid damaging adjacent structures.

RESULTS

The ciliary sulcus was completely penetrated in the three techniques in 100, 40, and 70% of cases, respectively. The histologic sections and the UBM images showed that when sutures were placed perpendicular to the eye wall, there was the possibility of postoperative angle closure and suturing parallel to the iris might damage adjacent structures because of a narrow safety zone.

CONCLUSIONS

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 reproducibility and causes less damage to adjacent tissue.