Cataract is the most common cause of treatable blindness and estimates suggest that cataract accounted for around 20 million cases of blindness worldwide in 2010 (World Heath Organization 2010). As age expectancy increases, the number of people with cataract is expected to grow. Cataract surgery is the most commonly performed surgical procedure, with over 330 000 cases performed each year in England alone (Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2010). Although cataract surgery is considered to be very successful, no surgery is completely without risk and complications such as corneal oedema, raised intraocular pressure, cystoid macular oedema, endophthalmitis, posterior capsular opacification and refractive surprise can still occur (Barry et al. 2013; Jaycock et al. 2009; Lundström et al. 2013). Therefore, the desire to strive for further refinements and improvements continues.