A modified suture placement technique to avoid suture drag or "cheese wire" effect.

A modified technique is described for microsurgical suture placement, irrespective of the closure technique, to prevent suture drag and loosening of the suture following postoperative wound edema. Fine, elastic, non-absorbable sutures which loosen as a result of suture drag or "cheese wiring" have no more reliability than do absorbable or silk sutures. Predictable and reproducible results of suture placement are necessary to allow the surgeon to effectively use the operating keratometer in the control and modification of corneal astigmatism following anterior segment surgery.