Method of performing opthalmic surgery utilizing a linear intra-ocular suction device

A method for performing ophalmic surgery comprising the following steps:

• adapting a cannula to be inserted into a surgical zone;
• inserting the cannula into the surgical zone;
• maintaining a debris receptacle at a selectable vacuum level for receiving material from the surgical zone, including the steps of
• (1) decreasing the vacuum level of the receptacle through an exhaust valve by automatically and continuously communicating between a transducer, a conduit, and a exhaust valve, such that the exhaust valve is automatically opened when there is an excessive vacuum level detected in the receptacle,
• (2) increasing the vacuum level of said receptacle by automatically and continuously communicating between the transducer and the conduit to automatically open the conduit between the vacuum supply and the receptacle to increase the vacuum level of the receptacle when an insufficient vacuum level is detected in the receptacle,
• (3) providing a normally closed, electrically operable valve on the vacuum line and selectively opening and closing the electrically operable valve to maintain a desired vacuum level in said receptacle, opening said valve to atmosphere when the vacuum level of said debris receptacle exceeds the desired vacuum level to maintain the desired vacuum level in said receptacle and closing said valve to maintain the desired vacuum level in said receptacle,
• (4) maintaining a first potentiometer at a predetermined value to represent the maximum vacuum level at which said receptacle may be maintained,
• (5) periodically setting a second potentiometer at a value representing a percentage of the value of the first potentiometer, where the percentage value is the vacuum level at which the receptacle is maintained for any given application, and
• (6) communicating with the vacuum supply and the exhaust valve for comparing the percentage value of the second potentiometer with the detected vacuum level of the pressure transducer to open the conduit and the exhaust valve in response to an insufficient and an excessive level, respectively, in the debris receptacle;
• maintaining a vacuum supply at a predetermined level for varying the vacuum level of the debris receptacle in order that the debris receptacle may be maintained at a selectable vacuum level;
• communicating between the vacuum supply, the debris receptacle and the cannula with the conduit to selectively increase and decrease the vacuum level of said receptacle when the vacuum of said receptacle is greater or lesser than a predetermined selectable vacuum level;
• and
• automatically and continuously monitoring the vacuum level of said receptacle with a pressure transducer in order that any variance in the vacuum level of said receptacle may be instantaneously corrected by either increasing or decreasing the vacuum of said receptacle.