Anton Banko, the Slovenian inventor behind the success of Charles Kelman

AbstractBehind the success story of phacoemulsification that started with Charles Kelman, there was an ingenious engineer that helped him to create the first clinically useful apparatus. Anton Banko was born in a Slovenian family in Istria, very close to actual venue of EVER meeting. He studied engineering and electrics in Ljubljana and later moved to United Sates where he worked in the field of ultrasound instruments for dental use Cavitron company as the director of research and development. Charles Kelman turned to him with a request to construct an ultrasound device for cataract removal and their first joint US patent No. 3589363 was filed on 25th July 1967. A year later, Anton Banko established his own company in New York, named Surgical Design, and the company produced a series of very reliable and successful phaco machines that are still used worldwide. Anton Banko continued to develop many other patents used in ocular surgery including instrument for vitrectomy that he patented in 1969 after which a combined Mackool/Heslin Ocusystem machine was designed. Sadly , he died of incurable disease soon after the success of his company which since then is led by his son William. Anton Banko's wish to donate one of the machines to the University Eye Hospital in Ljubljana was conweyed by his family. Due to his legacy, surgeons from Slovenia started to use phacoemulsification as early as in 1989 after training in the wetlab of Surgical Design company. Anton Banko remains one of the giants of instrumentation in ocular surgery with Slovenian origins.