Ophthalmic surgical apparatus for pulverizing and removing the lens nucleus from the eye of a living being

Claim 1

An ophthalmic surgical device for pulverizing a lens nucleus in an eye and for removing particles of the pulverized lens nucleus from the eye of a living being, comprising: a housing defining an axis and being adapted for gripping by a user; a mounting attached to one axial end of said housing and including a forward end supporting a guide tube which has an upper edge and is formed with a prolongation extending outwardly in axial direction from the upper edge and so shaped as to form a clamping jaw; cutting means for shattering the lens nucleus, said cutting means including a tubular probe movable and rotatable relative to the guide tube, said tubular probe defining an interior space and so received coaxially in said guide tube that a feed channel is formed between said tubular probe and said guide tube, and a working head attached to said tubular probe and having an inlet opening in axial direction and in communication with the interior space of said tubular probe, said working head exhibiting a substantially horizontal top surface in the form of a plurality of circumferentially spaced radial cutting elements spaced around the inlet opening, with the clamping jaw extending parallel to the working head; fluid supply means connected to the feed channel for supplying irrigation fluid to a surgical site; and suction means for drawing excess fluid and particles of the lens nucleus being pulverized by said cutting element through said inlet opening of said working head into the interior space of and said tubular probe.