All published articles of this journal are available on ScienceDirect.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

In Water Thermal Imaging Comparison of the Alcon Legacy and AMO Sovereign Phacoemulsification Systems§

The Open Ophthalmology Journal 15 Feb 2008 RESEARCH ARTICLE DOI: 10.2174/1874364100802010020

Abstract

Purpose:

To compare the temperature profiles of 2 popular phacoemulsification units under similar operating conditions in water.

Methods:

The phacoemulsification probes of the Sovereign WhiteStar and Legacy AdvanTec were capped with water-filled test chambers and imaged side-by-side using a thermal camera. The highest temperature of each chamber was measured at several time points after power application. Testing was performed under conditions capable of producing a corneal burn. The Legacy was operated in pulse mode at 15 Hz; a 50% duty cycle; and console power settings of 10, 30, 50 and 100%. The Sovereign was operated at the same console settings in WhiteStar C/F pulse mode at 56 Hz and a 33% duty cycle.

Results:

Under all conditions (powers of 10, 30, 50 and 100%; with or without irrigation/aspiration flow; and with or without sleeve compression), the Sovereign generated higher temperatures than the Legacy. At irrigation/aspiration flow rates ≥ 5 cc/min, the temperature profiles of the 2 units were indistinguishable.

Conclusion:

The Sovereign WhiteStar ran hotter than the Legacy AdvanTec under a variety of controlled low flow operating conditions. The Sovereign WhiteStar is more likely than the Legacy AdvanTec to produce a corneal burn under low flow conditions.

Fulltext HTML PDF
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804