Phacoemulsification and Vitrectomy with the Erbium: or Neodymium:YAG-Laser

Summary There are an increasing number of applications for Erbium:YAG and Neodymium:YAG lasers in opthalmology. Laser phacoemulsification and Erbium-laser vitrectomy are of major interest. We report the underlying technology and more than 1-year-experience using the PHACOLASE (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany, 10–100 Hz frequency, 5–50 mJ single pulse energy) for phacoemulsification and pars plana vitrectomy and the Lyla-Dodick laser photolysis (A.R.C. Laser, Eckental-Forth, Germany, 1–20 Hz, up to 8 mJ single pulse energy). The Erbium:YAG laser and Neodymium:YAG laser enabled us to extract lenses with up to medium hard nuclei. Moreover, the Erbium laser enabled fast vitrectomy with little…