Estudio prospectivo randomizado comparando Discovisc® versus Healon® en facoemulsificación

Abstract

bjective: To compare the intraoperative behaviour of both, DisCoVisc® and Healon® used as viscoelastics in cataract surgery. Method: We prospectively evaluated 35 patients with cataracts who underwent phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation. Patients were randomized into two groups. Group A included 17 patients in where Healon® was used as a viscoelastic, whereas group B included 18 patients in where the viscoelastic used was DisCoVisc®. After each procedure, the surgeon filled in a questionnaire describing the behaviour of the viscoelastic during the different stages of phacoemulsification. Results: DisCoVisc® behaved as both cohesive and dispersive viscoelastic during capsulorrhexis, phacoemulsification and viscoelastic aspiration, whereas Healon® acted as a cohesive substance during all surgical stages. DisCoVisc® enabled better visualization and transparency during all the surgical stages and maintains the capsular bag better during the intraocular lens implantation. Viscoelastic aspiration was easier with Healon®. Conclusions: DisCoVisc® is a new viscosurgical device with both cohesive and dispersive properties, which avoids using two different viscoelastics to improve the performance at different surgical stages. DisCoVisc® has been shown to be more transparent and provides better anterior chamber maintenance when compared with Healon®. Healon® was more easily aspirated due to its cohesive character