Phaco Chop Techniques: Comparing and Integrating Horizontal and Vertical Chopping

Paul Koch’s “Stop and Chop” method is a hybrid of divide-and-conquer and horizontal chopping. His technique begins with sculpting a traditional deep, central groove in order to crack the nucleus in half. One then stops the divide-and-conquer method, and chops the hemi-nuclei. Although the Koch method utilizes some horizontal chopping, this author coined the term “Non-stop Chop” to differentiate and designate pure chopping techniques that eliminate all sculpting.