Eye Surgery and What You Need to Know

Although possible, it is hard to perform surgery on the eye. It requires careful care before, during and after surgery. Once it is determined that you or someone you love will need eye surgery by your eye doctor, you will need to seek out an expert eye surgeon. He or she will need to examine you and identify why you need surgery and what specific procedure it is that you need. As with any doctor, you must trust this eye doctor to care for this sensitive organ and ask as many questions as possible. And most importantly, it is important for you to know that you need to find a specialist – an eye surgeon who knows exactly what type of eye surgery you need.

Eye surgery is a broad term and includes several different types, including refractive surgery and vitreoretinal surgery. Let focus on the sub category of eye surgery entitled vitreoretinal surgery.

Vitreoretinal surgery, also known as a vitrectomy, is the removal of the front section of the vitreous tissue. Who might need this type of procedure, you might ask? The answer is that this surgery is used in order to prevent or treatment of a vitreous loss that had occurred from a cataract or, for example, a corneal surgery. In some cases, vitreoretinal surgery also is good for the removal of a misplaced vitreous  if a person has aphakia papillary block glaucoma, or related conditions.

And even farther in the the subtleties of vitreoretinal surgery there is what is called a pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), also known as trans pars plana vitrectomy (TPPV). This is a procedure that removes vitreous opacities and membranes through a very small cut, also called an incision. This is a procedure that is usually done together with other eye surgeries. It is  usually done to fix the problem with giant retinal tears, traditional retinal detachments, and posterior vitreous detachments.

Find out if your optometrist knows of a good vitreoretinal surgeon. It’s important that you trust this eye surgeon to the best of your ability, since you are putting your vision is his hands.