At a cost of 5,000 € and up, phaco handpieces represent a significant asset for your clinic, and it is common sense to care and preserve them with the utmost care. Unfortunately, these fragile devices don’t always obtain the attention they ought to have. They get dropped, or the wire is accidentally cut with a knife.
In this article, we’ll assist you comprehend your phaco handpieces and provide guidelines for maintaining them in great form.
Phaco handpieces have three uses:
- To irrigate the eye, maintaining it inflated during surgical procedure;
- To phacoemulsify, breaking up the cataract; and,
- To aspirate, removing remains.
The handpiece converts electrical energy into mechanical movement at the tip. The tip throbs at approximately 40,000 KHz (from 20,000 to 50,000 vibrations per second), which breaks up the cataract. The movement comes from applying energy to piezo crystals within the handpiece.
The crystals are very delicate and under high pressure. Therefore, to maintain the handpiece in operational order, experts recommend tender cleaning to methodically remove remains but maintain the fragile crystals unharmed.