Ultrasonic Vitrectomy Instrument

Contemporary vitrectomy devices utilize an air driven stylus reciprocating within a sheath at a sonic frequency, guillotining and then aspirating the vitreous gel admitted through a distal port in the side of the sheath. A small handheld ultrasonic instrument (Banko 1971) operating at 50 kHz, utilizing a solid titanium stylus, within a 20 needle gauge sheath, vibrating at an excursion between 150 and 200 microns, has been developed to precisely and rapidly liquefy and aspirate, at 360 mmHg vacuum, vitreous humor from bovine eyes.