New Diamond-Edge Knife Used In Eye Operations

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31188, 12 October 1966, Page 22

New Diamond-Edge Knife Used In Eye Operations

(N.Z.P.A.Reuter)

WILMINGTON (Delaware).

An eye surgeon, Dr. Davis Durham, has developed a new technique in cataract operations using a diamond-edged knife so precise that it can make a million cuts in a half-inch strand of hair.

The knife used by Dr. Durham is manufactured by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company fron. gemquality diamonds. It makes possible a perfectly bevelled incision.

“This has long been one of the most difficult aspects of cataract surgery,” Dr. Durham explains. “Diamond knives are many times sharper than the sharpest steel.” Surgeons have long been searching for sharper tools and instruments, says Dr. Durham, who claims that the diamond knife he uses has a perfect cutting edge at 1000 times magnification. The idea was born about two years ago when an engineer employed by E. I. du Pont de Nemours inquired about the possible use in human surgery of diamond knives which the company was manufacturing for other purposes. After a great deal of experiment the present instrument was evolved. Dr. Durham credits Mr Robert Tuttle, a machinist neighbour who made the prototype, with major help in development of the knife. The ultra-sharp surgical knife is attached to a vacuum ring which fixates the eye and positions the knife during surgery. The portion holding the knife rotates freely around the perimeter of the device on a bearing of Teflon resin, chosen for its slip-free operation. The ring-shaped device

allows continuous inspection of the incision while it is being made.

The main advantage of a perfectly-bevelled incision, according to Dr. Durham, is that it brings faster healing and normal restoration of the shape of the eye. Dr. Durham has performed 65 successful cataract operations with the diamond knife. He describes the method as far superior to handheld knives.

“Now the cutting is made in one continuous motion,” he says. About 25 of the cataract operations were performed in Wilmington. The rest were performed in Johannesburg, South Africa, in co-operation

with Professor Maurice Luntz, of the University of Witwatersrand.

Because of Its angle, Dr. Durham says, the diamond knife cannot be used for deep incisions, but could be helpful in bone work. In the knife which he uses, the depth of the incision is controlled by a guard.

A diamond blade has an unusually long life and is easily sterilised. Dr. Durham’s trip to South Africa was one of many which he has made to various parts of the world. He spent four weeks in Alaska in 1949, studying and treating eye diseases of Eskimos. He has also visited Samoa, Nepal and Haiti.