Understanding OVDs is essential for good cataract surgery

CATARACT surgeons need to have a thorough understanding of the classification of ophthalmic viscosurgical devices (OVDs) if they are to use them to their best advantage, said Steve Arshinoff MD FRCSC in his Rayner Medal lecture at the annual meeting of the United Kingdom and Ireland Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (UKISCRS) held in conjunction with the XXIV Congress of the ESCRS. Dr Arshinoff, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, noted that there are now nearly 80 OVDs on the market and that their properties vary widely. In order to understand how best to use a given OVD it is necessary to understand what class it fits into and how OVDs of that class behave differently from those of other classes, he emphasised.