Patient's note before vitreoretinal surgery
- After the operation, your eye will be covered with a dressing to protect it from accidental contamination. The dressing should be removed when you get home. You can treat the eyelids (not the eye itself) with sterile cotton wool moistened with furatsilin 0.02% aqueous solution or levomycetin 0.25% aqueous solution (available at the pharmacy). Starting from the first day after the operation, do not constantly cover the operated eye with a bandage, under which the eye cannot blink and move freely.
- On the day of surgery and during the rehabilitation period, pain may occur in the operated eye or in the area around the eye (brow, temple). In case of pain syndrome, it is advisable to take Ketanov, Ketorol, Analgin tablets (according to the instructions for these drugs) and consult your doctor.
Rehabilitation period
The proposed recommendations are general, i.e. designed for most patients. In cases of an individual course of the postoperative period, the doctor may suggest an individual treatment regimen and a schedule of patient examinations. Please check the recommendations at each visit to the doctor!
- Regimen. After surgery, adherence to a regimen may have some therapeutic value. After the operation, the surgeon or your attending physician will give you recommendations on how to behave in the first day after the operation. In the future, you should check with your doctor about the specifics of the postoperative regime.
- Hygiene. When washing your face, avoid getting soap and water in your eyes. When washing your head, tilt your head backwards, not forwards. If water gets into the operated eye, rinse it with an aqueous solution of furatsilin 0.02% or an aqueous solution of levomycetin 0.25% (available at the pharmacy).
- Be sure to visit the doctor on the appointed day!
- Eye drops are needed for faster healing and prevention of infectious complications. As a rule, after the operation, the surgeon prescribes the instillation of several drugs: drops with an antibiotic (for example, ‘Flexal’, ‘Oftakviks’, ‘Tobrex’, etc.), anti-inflammatory drops (for example, ‘Nevanak’, ‘Indocollir’, etc.) or combined drugs (‘Maxitrol’, ‘Tobradex’, etc.).
Visual acuity in the postoperative period.
The improvement of vision after surgery occurs gradually over the first 2 to 3 months. In some patients, an increase in visual acuity is observed within six months. As a rule, this process is slower in patients with myopia, diabetes mellitus, general diseases and operated retinal detachment, retinal tears, retinal membrane and in the elderly.
During the healing and rehabilitation period, your eyes may be ‘different’. You may need temporary glasses or contact lenses to correct this situation. The final eye correction is advisable to be carried out 2-3 months after the operation, although the timing of the glasses selection is decided individually, if, for example, the only eye is operated on.
As vision recovers, some patients may experience distortion of lines and objects and double vision. These symptoms usually subside gradually over several weeks or months.
Follow-up care and recommendations
- Gas.If gas is injected into the eye at the final stage of the operation, the postoperative period has a number of features. In the first days after the operation, visual acuity is extremely low, as the gas does not allow light to reach the retina. As the gas is absorbed (approximately 10-15 days), the upper part of the visual field begins to brighten, and the patient may notice a ‘media separation level’ that changes position depending on the movement of the head. In 7-10 days after the operation, when less than a third of the vitreous volume remains in the eye, a single bubble in the eye may break into several small ones. In case of individual course of the process, some patients may experience intraocular pressure increase during gas expansion (up to 3 days after surgery). As a rule, this process is accompanied by pain and redness of the eye. In such cases, you should immediately consult a doctor!
- Silicone. If liquid silicone is injected into the eye at the final stage of the operation, it is important to remember that during the period of silicone in the eye, visual acuity is corrected with glasses (usually from +4.0 to +6.0 D). Silicone removal from the vitreous cavity is usually performed no earlier than 3 months after surgery. You should be aware that the presence of silicone in the eye can accelerate the process of clouding of the eye lens (development of cataracts) and provoke an increase in intraocular pressure, especially in the early postoperative period. The removal of silicone from the eye is a separate operation and is paid for separately.
- For patients with diabetes mellitus. At the final stage of the operation and in the postoperative period, a solution of anti-inflammatory drug (Dexamethasone, Diprospan, Kenalog) is injected near the eye. Despite a small dose (no more than 0.5 ml), some patients with diabetes mellitus experience an increase in blood glucose levels within 1 to 2 days after the injection. Be careful!
Rules for burying drops
- Wash your hands thoroughly.
- Open the bottle.
- Tilt your head back or lie on your back and look up.
- Place the bottle upside down over the eye, do not touch the eye and eyelashes.
- Gently grasp the lower eyelid with your fingers and pull it down slightly.
- Lift your eyes up and squeeze the bottle slightly so that a drop falls into the space between the eyeball and the stretched lower eyelid.
- Close your eyes.
- To enhance the effectiveness of the impact and minimise the systemic side effects of the eye drops, press the inner corner of the eye socket with your index finger (through a sterile napkin).
- When prescribing several drops, the interval between instillations should be about 5 minutes. The last drops to be instilled are those that reduce intraocular pressure.
- Close the vial and store it as directed.
Contact us
If you still have questions, call our friendly call center or make an appointment for a full diagnostic followed by a consultation.
