Foreword

Since the invention of phacoemulsification by Dr. Charles Kelman, the incision size has been a challenge for the modern cataract surgeon. The incision size has continuously been reduced in the past thirty years. The importance of incision size is related to the safety provided by the smallest incision that can be left without suturing, the neutrality in astigmatism, one of the important steps in the realization of refractive cataract surgery and the ability to implant or inject an IOL through a very small, sealed incision.

Intraocular lens technology, kept the pace in this race against time, making significant steps in the recent years. The dream of the pioneers of this field, to operate through the smallest incision possible, with an IOL that can be inserted or injected through it, has finally come true at the dawn of the new millennium.

The Clinical Practice in Small Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) is the first book on this new exciting era of cataract surgery. The editors, Drs. Ashok Garg, Luther L Fry, Geoffery Tabin, Francisco J Gutiérrez-Carmona, Suresh K Pandey and an international team of expert ophthalmic surgeons have contributed in the realization of this manual, that will become a very valuable source for the colleagues that are interested to adapt these techniques.

The “Clinical Practice in Small Incision Cataract Surgery” consists of 57 chapters divided in four sections that analyze every detail on small incision cataract surgery. The first chapter describes the anatomy and the biochemistry of the human crystalline lens. The etiology of cataract, its classification and various treatment modalities are beautifully illustrated. Drs. Sunita and Amar Agarwal wrote the next chapters on two very important issues in modern cataract surgery, the optical and acoustical biometry and the sterilization. Anesthesia, topical or non-topical, and also modern anesthetic viscoelastics compose the next chapters. The fluidics and the various viscosurgical devices play a significant role in the safety of cataract surgery, as described in the following chapters. Several pages are devoted to the preoperative preparation of the patient, the dynamics of SICS and surgical techniques utilized during the various operative steps.

Modern IOL materials and IOL implantation techniques through very small incision are some of the important issues that are covered in the “Clinical Practice in Small Incision Cataract Surgery”. A significant amount of information on manual phacofragmentation through small incision, combined SICS and glaucoma surgery, and pediatric cataract surgery are also included. The management of complications from the

anterior or posterior segment is extensively described. The etiology, the clinical manifestations and the pharmacological prevention of the posterior capsule opacification, a problem still to be solved, are presented in detail. The final chapter is an update on twenty-first century cataract-intraocular lens surgery, that describes the shape of things to come.

The “Clinical Practice in Small Incision Cataract Surgery” presents an overview of SICS with a look towards the future. I am very honored by the request of Dr. Ashok

Garg and his internationally known coauthors to write a foreword to this new manual. I would like to congratulate all the contributors of this excellent book, that will become a very important reference for the modern ophthalmic surgeon.

Pandelis A.PapadopoulosMD, PhD, FEBO Director, Ophthalmology Department Athens Metropolitan Hospital Director Ophthalmo-Check Eye Center of Athens General Secretary, Hellenic Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery 42, Poseidon Avenue, Paleo Faliro, 17561 Athens, Hellas tel: +30 210 9881800 fax:+30 210 9848505 e-mail: eyedoc@hol.gr