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The decision to remove a damaged eye is a frightening experience. While in some cases the ultimate choice is yours and your family's, your doctor's recommendation that removal is the best course of action means you must consider what the future holds.
The surgical procedure itself is not difficult to understand. Total loss of sight occurs because during the process for removal of the eye your optic nerve is severed.
During surgery (enucleation or evisceration of the eye) your doctor will choose one of a variety of implants available to partially replace the void created when your eye is removed. An implant is not an ocular prosthesis. It is a selected device which is inserted by the Ophthalmologist or Ocular Plastic Surgeon at the time of eye removal/replacement, (buried beneath the tissue) which compensates for/and replaces the loss of volume in the orbit.
Complications
Should any major changes occur in the orbit which would cause the existing eye Prosthesis to no longer match the socket correctly, it will then become imperative to have a replacement Ocular Prosthesis made and fitted.
Almost every patient who has had an eye removed will at some stage in their life develop common orbital changes, which could affect the exterior region of the socket. In some cases major orbital changes might develop complications and would thus require surgical correction to the affected area.
There is a condition called dry eye syndrome that can be caused when the secreting glands in the eye lids do not function as well as they did before surgery, necessitating the use of tear substitutes or supplements. Your doctor will instruct you should this problem persist. |
For the Patient