Viral contamination during sequential phacoemulsification surgeries in an experimental model

Purpose: To determine the incidence of Piry virus contamination among surgical instruments used with disposable accessories for phacoemulsification during sequential surgeries. Methods: An experimental model was created with 4 pigs' eyes that were contaminated with Piry virus and 4 pigs' eyes that were not contaminated. Phacoemulsification was performed on the eyes, alternating between the contaminated and non-contaminated eyes. From one surgery to another, the operating fields, gloves, scalpel, tweezers, needles, syringes, tips and bag collector from the phacoemulsification machine were exchanged; only the hand piece and the irrigation and aspiration systems were maintained. Results: In the collector bag, three samples from the contaminated eyes (3/4) were positive, and two samples from the non-contaminated (2/4) eyes were also positive; at the tip, one sample from the contaminated eyes (1/4) and two samples of the noncontaminated eyes (2/4) yielded positive results. In the irrigation system, one sample from a non-contaminated eye (1/4) was positive, and in the aspiration system, two samples from contaminated eyes (2/4) and two samples from non-contaminated eyes (2/4) were positive. In the gloves, the samples were positive in two samples from the non-contaminated eyes (2/4) and in two samples from the contaminated eyes (2/4). In the scalpel samples, three contaminated eyes (3/4) and none of the non-contaminated eyes (0/4) were positive; finally, two samples from the anterior chambers of the non-contaminated eyes gathered after surgery were positive. Conclusions: In two non-contaminated eyes, the presence of genetic material was detected after phacoemulsification surgery, demonstrating that the transmission of the genetic material of the Piry virus occurred at some point during the surgery on these non-contaminated eyes when the hand piece and irrigation and aspiration systems were reused between surgeries.