ABSTRACT
In 1997, I met Prof Michael Blumenthal during a conference in Nepal and learnt about his mini-nuc technique, which I introduced in our Lahan Eye Hospital in southeast Nepal. Being a busy eye hospital with often 300-350 cataract surgeries per day, performed by four surgeons, there was need for a different, more simplified technique. Instead of anterior chamber maintainer and hydroexpression of the nucleus, we use a small hook for nucleus extraction. From 1998 till August 2003, more than 160,000 sutureless cataract operations with nucleus extraction have been performed at Lahan. In the meantime, this technique has spread to many Asian and African countries and even some surgeons in Germany use it when phacoemulsification is not appropriate. It is named “Lahan Technique”, “Hennig Technique” or more often “Fishhook Technique”. In 2000, a video of this technique was honoured with a Special Award during the Annual Meeting of German Ophthalmic Surgeons (DOC).
