Patent ID: 8854221

Claim:
An ophthalmic surgical system for detecting a change in a viscosity of a material being aspirated from an eye, comprising: at least a control module connected to an aspiration pump, and a flow meter connected to the control module and the aspiration pump, the flow meter for providing a flow rate of material aspirated from the eye by the aspiration pump; a surgical handpiece connected to the aspiration pump and the control module to be inserted into the eye during surgery; and wherein the control module, during surgery, detects a step change in the flow rate of material aspirated from the eye and the control module, based only on the detected step change without the use of any data stored in the control module prior to surgery, further causes the surgical system to alert a surgeon that a change in viscosity of the material being aspirated has been detected indicating that the handpiece has moved from a material of a first viscosity to a material of a second viscosity.