Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10691209 | Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology | 2015 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
Phacoemulsification, a common treatment for cataract, is accompanied by cell damage at the corneal endothelium. Thermal exposure during treatment has been considered a reason for this damage, but a thorough experimental and theoretical assessment of the local temperature distribution inside the eye had not yet been conducted. Measurements in porcine eyes and a finite-element simulation enabled such an assessment and localized the highest temperature rise very close to the probe. The results described in this study indicate that a distance of 1 mm between the probe and the endothelium should be maintained during treatment as a safety margin, especially when fluid flow is blocked. The highest measured temperature rise with surgically reasonable system settings and unblocked fluid flow was 1.11°C. The finite-element simulation described here is able to calculate the temperature rise at the endothelium and could serve as a tool for comparing arbitrary surgical situations with respect to thermal exposure of the endothelium.
Related Topics
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Acoustics and Ultrasonics
Authors
Steffen Buschschlüter, Jörn von Eicken, Christian Koch, Helmut Höh,