To compare intraoperative parameters and postoperative results between divide-and-conquer and multiple phaco-chop technique.

Two different techniques were performed by one operator on the patients with bilateral cataract. One eye was phacoemulsified by divide-and-conquer technique (D eye), and the other was performed by multiple phaco-chop technique (M eye). Changes of central corneal thickness during the operation, total phaco-time and phaco-energy were measured.

Total 29 patients were included. The change of central corneal thickness were 8.4 ± 11.8 µm in D eye and 11.5 ± 16.7 µm in M eye, which showed no significant difference ( p = 0.350) and total phaco-time were 70.1 ± 32.9 seconds in D eye and 71.1 ± 55.0 seconds in M eye, which also showed no significant difference ( p = 0.689). However, phaco-energy were 12.4 ± 8.3 power × s in D eye and 8.4 ± 9.9 power × s in M eye, and this result showed significantly larger energy when using divide-and-conquer technique ( p < 0.001).

There was no significant difference in change of central corneal thickness and phaco-time between two techniques, divide-and-conquer and multiple phaco-chop technique. However, significantly smaller phaco energy was used by multiple phaco-chop technique compared with divide-and-conquer technique.