Eye Surgery
What is eye surgery?
Eye surgery is surgery that is performed on the eye or eyes or its corresponding adnexa i.e. appendages of the eye such as extraocular muscles, eyelids and lacrimal glands. Eye surgery is also commonly referred to as ocular surgery and is performed by a qualified professional known as an ophthalmologist. There are ophthalmologists that are generally trained and those that are fellowship trained or more specialized. Most general ophthalmologists can perform most forms of eye surgery but some are left to the more highly experienced and skilled doctors in the field.
Two of the most common types of eye surgery performed on patients are:
laser eye surgery – laser surgery is generally used to treat conditions that are deemed as “nonrefractive” such as for example to seal in a tear in the retina
refractive surgery – refractive surgery does not make use of lasers. An example of this would be radial keratotomy.
The types of eye surgery performed vary according to the specific eye problem as well as the severity of the symptoms. Examples of eye surgery that are commonly performed include
laser surgery as well as incisional surgery
cataract surgery
glaucoma surgery
refractive surgery (which has a number of different kinds)
corneal surgery
vitreo-retinal surgery
There are other types of eye surgery:
eye muscle surgery
oculoplastic surgery
eyelid surgery
These last three are not as common as the above types. Other kinds of eye surgery that are performed but not on a large scale include surgery that involves the lacrimal apparatus (which is used to allow for the flowing of tears into the nasal cavity from the lacrimal sac) and eye removal surgery which is only employed in extreme cases such as a malignant tumor.
There are also orbital surgeries, such as orbital reconstruction and/or ocular prosthetics (in other words eyes made out of man made materials ) and orbital decompression for Grave’s Disease. Falling under the category of oculoplastic surgeries are reconstructive surgeries that involve the eye such as:
botox injections
endoscopic forehead and brow lifts
ultra peel microdermabrasion
face lifts (or rhytidectomies)
browplasty
liposuction done to the face or the neck area
Eye surgery must be undertaken with the utmost care and the preparations for surgery are as important as the post-operative care. The correct amount of anesthetic [ a substance that produces anesthesia ] is an absolute necessity for eye surgery and it is a local anesthetic that is most often used in the majority of cases.
Retrobulbar and peribulbar are the techniques most frequently used to gain acess to the delicate area of the eye. These techniques serve to “freeze” the extraocular muscles of the eye and do away with extreme discomfort or pain.
If the eye surgery procedure is very basic and quick then a topical anesthetic is used such as lidocaine topical gel. In order for a topical anesthetic to work correctly the full co-operation of the patient is essential.
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