Retinal detachment surgery side effects

Discussion in 'Laser Eye Surgery' started by Sashi, Dec 1, 2006.

  1. Sashi

    Sashi Guest

    All,
    My brother recently went to an ophthalmologist as he was seeing wavy
    lines when looking at straight lines. He was diagnosed with retinal
    detachment and was advised to undergo immediate surgery.
    The surgery itself was claimed as being successful but he has two
    serious side effects.
    1. He's gone extremely myopic in the eye, reducing his vision to a mere
    6-7 inches. This is almost blind!
    2. His eye has "shrunk" giving an impression of having lost an eye, or
    close to.

    His doctor claims that these are normal side effects and the myopia can
    be corrected via lenses or laser surgery.

    Needless to say, we are _extremely_ worried about this situation.

    He was a normal looking person and now he appears disfigured and is
    almost blind.

    Is this normal? What are his options now

    Thanks a lot,
    Sashi
     
    Sashi, Dec 1, 2006
    #1
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  2. Sashi

    Sashi Guest

    Dr Judy,

    Thanks for your advise. It does make me feel better. Is myopia an
    expected and a common side effect?
    How about the shrinking of the eye socket which is a kind of
    disfigurement? Is this also common side effect?
    Thanks,
    Sashi
     
    Sashi, Dec 2, 2006
    #2
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  3. Sashi

    Dan Abel Guest

    I had a retinal detachment and surgery to correct it in my right eye
    about 15 years ago. I got a buckle (the band that Dr. Judy described).
    It does lengthen the eyeball, causing both increased myopia, and in my
    case, irregular astigmatism which is not completely correctable with
    ordinary glasses or contacts. I was already extremely myopic (I could
    only see about an inch), so I just got slightly stronger contacts. Was
    your brother very myopic before the surgery?

    I had this surgery about a year ago in the left eye. The doctor elected
    not to put on a buckle, so I retained my 20/20 uncorrected vision in
    that eye.


    I didn't have that. It's true, though, that high myopia corrected with
    glasses makes the eye look much smaller.

    If your brother is myopic in one eye and not the other, he may wish to
    consider contacts. It is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to
    see using glasses when the correction is very different.
     
    Dan Abel, Dec 2, 2006
    #3
  4. Sashi

    Sashi Guest

    My brother had perfectly good vision before the surgery and is strongly
    myopic in the operated eye now.
    As everyone has pointed out it's probably best to get it corrected via
    laser surgery or corrective contacts.
    The shrinkage is apparent without wearing any lenses whatsoever so it
    doesn't have much to do with a corrective lens making it look
    apparently small.
    Looks like this might be an issue of phthisis bulbi, unfortunately.
    Sashi
    Sashi
     
    Sashi, Dec 5, 2006
    #4
  5. Sashi

    Dr. Leukoma Guest

    In phthisis bulbi, the eye goes completely soft and blind. Is your
    brother blind in that eye?

    As has been mentioned before, the silicone "belt" the goes around the
    eye has the effect of putting a rubber band around a balloon -- the eye
    has no choice but to become elongated in the antero-posterior
    direction, with the result that it becomes increasingly myopic. This
    *may* have the visual effect of the eye looking smaller.

    DrG
     
    Dr. Leukoma, Dec 5, 2006
    #5
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