Configuration of corneal trephine opening using five different trephines in human donor eyes.

In this laboratory study, we used five different corneal trephines on 60 fresh human donor eyes with controlled intraocular pressure to study the variation in the size and shape of the trephine openings. With all trephines, the average diameter of the button was larger than the diameter of the trephine at the epithelial side (mean difference, 0.21 mm; range, 0.06 to 0.35 mm) and the endothelial side (mean difference, 0.42 mm; range, 0.13 to 0.79 mm), presumably because the corneal tissue protruded into the trephine during cutting. The trephines that produced the most uniform opening were a nondisposable suction trephine and a freestanding disposable blade, but they caused some undercutting.