Two hundred fifty consecutive postmortem eyes containing posterior chamber intraocular lenses (PC IOLs) were analyzed according to the presence and number of radial anterior capsular tears. Over 90% of cases had been done with the "can opener" technique. A surprisingly high percentage of cases, 86%, had one to five radial tears. Furthermore, our analysis showed that the most consistent and most permanent in-the-bag fixation was achieved when only one tear or less was present in the anterior capsule. Because this study shows that the incidence of radial tears is very high after nuclear expression with "can opener" capsulectomy, it provides a scientific basis supporting the transition toward the continuous circular capsulorhexis technique that is slowly evolving. The latter technique has been shown to minimize the incidence of anterior capsular radial tears. This may ultimately serve to decrease the incidence of PC IOL decentration, an important goal if the use of bimultifocal IOLs and IOLs with small or aspheric optics is to be successful.