This video features guest surgeon Rob Melendez MD from New Mexico, USA. Dr. Melendez is a highly talented surgeon with tens of thousands of surgeries worth of experience in his hands. He is showing us a routine stop-and-chop phaco surgery with the added twist of using a Simcoe Cannula for the irrigation / aspiration parts of the procedure such as cortex removal and viscoelastic removal.
The Simcoe Cannula was developed about 40 years ago by C. William Simcoe MD, an ophthalmologist in Oklahoma, USA. Dr. Simcoe also developed many other innovations such as C-loop haptics. A good summary of his philosophies can be found this article, where he explains the challenges in advancing surgical ophthalmology. Dr. Simcoe recently died and his obituary is posted here. His innovations and ideas will live on and positively impact the lives of countless patients.
The idea behind the Simcoe cannula is to provide a method for irrigation / aspiration without having to rely on a phaco machine. This technique is simple: a double-barreled cannula system allows for an infusion line of BSS to be connected to the inflow cannula while the outflow cannula is connected to a syringe that the surgeon can use to manually control aspiration.
click below to learn about Simcoe Cannula use from Dr. Melendez:
