Two-piece, dual-purpose comprehensive contact lens for vitreous surgery.
OBJECTIVE
To describe a dual-purpose lens that can be used both as a planoconcave direct-image lens and wide-angle lens. This lens provides good resolution, is autoclavable and self-stabilizing.


METHODS
New instrument design.


METHODS
This lens has two components (lenses): the inferior element is a modification of the standard, self-stabilizing planoconcave, one-piece acrylic lens with 4 footplates and is used in a similar manner; the superior part is a biconvex glass lens in a high-temperature-resistant plastic casing. The superior plastic casing is screwed on the inferior lens to convert it into a wide-angle lens. The lens is used as a self-stabilizing, planoconcave or wide-angle lens and is sterilized by autoclaving.


RESULTS
The planoconcave direct-image inferior lens gives a high-resolution image with a field of view of 20 degrees. The wide-angle lens on assembly of the inferior and superior parts gives a static field of view of 80 degrees and a dynamic field of view of 98 degrees.


CONCLUSIONS
The two-piece dual-purpose contact lens is an inexpensive substitute for both planoconcave and traditional wide-angle lens without compromising the stability and quality of the fundus image.
Chalam
K V
KV
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Fla. 32209, USA. kchalam@aol.com
Shah
Vinay A
VA
D003261:Contact Lenses; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D014821:Vitrectomy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014822:Vitreous Body / Q000601:surgery*