Configuration of corneal trephine opening using five different trephines in human donor eyes
G. van Rij and G. O. Waring 3rd
Department of Ophthalmology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Eye Hospital, The Netherlands.
In this laboratory study, we used five different corneal trephines on 60
fresh human donor eyes with controlled intraocular pressure to study the
variation in the size and shape of the trephine openings. With all
trephines, the average diameter of the button was larger than the diameter
of the trephine at the epithelial side (mean difference, 0.21 mm; range,
0.06 to 0.35 mm) and the endothelial side (mean difference, 0.42 mm; range,
0.13 to 0.79 mm), presumably because the corneal tissue protruded into the
trephine during cutting. The trephines that produced the most uniform
opening were a nondisposable suction trephine and a freestanding disposable
blade, but they caused some undercutting.
