Combined microwave energy and fixative agent for cataract induction in pig eyes
Received 13 October 2008; received in revised form 10 February 2009; accepted 12 February 2009.
We describe a technique used in enucleated pig eyes to create a uniformly hardened lens nucleus and an anterior capsule similar to the cataractous human lens. After treatment with microwave heat and a fixative agent, the pig eyes have clear corneas, anterior capsules with less tension and elasticity, and harder lens nuclei, with a consistency similar to that of a nuclear sclerosis grade I to V in the Emery-Little classification. The eyes can be used by residents in training to practice various phacoemulsification techniques, including continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis, hydrodelineation, sculpting, divide and conquer, phaco chop, and nondividing phacoemulsification.
From the Eye Center, Affiliated Second Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, and the Institute of Ophthalmology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Corresponding author: Ke Yao, MD, PhD, Eye Center, Affiliated Second Hospital College of Medicine and Institute of Ophthalmology, Zhejiang University, 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou 310009, China.
No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.
Supported by Key Technologies R&D Program in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan Period of China (2006BAI02B04).
Petrela Evis, MD, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, USA, helped with the English language and final assessment of this paper.
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