1103: Pre-Chopper Technique

Pre-chopping means that we are splitting the nucleus into half or quadrants prior to inserting the phaco probe into the eye. This can be done with a variety of instruments as simple as a 27g cannula and a standard chopper or with specialized instruments. The technique is what is important, more than the instruments. This video features Dr Pradip Mohanta who uses a novel chopper design by Dr Sohel Khan which is pushed away from the incision to split the nucleus.

click to watch this variation of phaco pre-chop by an expert surgeon:

note that this technique (and this chopper) are similar to a video that we previously hosted here:

This video of Dr Val Apostolov uses the Jacobovitz chopper found here.