Sir,

We thank Eke for his comments and suggestions of refinements for this posture used for cataract surgery for patients unable to lie flat. The method he reported in the American Journal of Ophthalmology certainly has striking similarities, even to the figure of 60° for the angle of declination of the axis of the operating microscope. It is indeed reassuring to know that none hearing his presentation to the British Ophthalmic Anaesthesia Society was able to suggest a better surgical approach.

We admire his ability to adjust his incision to the steep axis. We concede that in these challenging cases, we position the section to make it most accessible to the surgeon. We also admire his stamina in preferring the ‘standing-temporal’ option, which we find uncomfortable because of having to bear weight on one leg in order to operate the pedals.

We checked why our literature search did not pick up Eke's paper. We originally submitted our work to Eye in April 2006, two months before his paper was published. Nevertheless, we cordially salute his priority of authorship.