I work in the OR of a surgery center that specializes in cataract surgery. I can give you a walkthrough of our procedures.
You’ll be asked to come in about an hour or two before your actual operation. You’ll get checked in and taken back to Pre-Op.
In Pre-Op you will sit in a recliner and be asked to put on shoe covers, a gown and a hair covering. We usually don’t ask patients to remove clothing unless it’s in the way of the BP cuff or IV.
An RN will start an IV and administer eye drops to dilate your pupil. A local anesthetic will be placed in your eye as a jelly, or sometimes as a small soaked sponge called a pledgette. Your surgeon will probably come in around this time to make the surgical site with a skin marker over your eye. This is to make sure we work on the correct eye. You’ll probably be asked a hundred times your name, doctor, and which eye your having worked on. It can get repetitive but it’s all to protect you and us! The anesthesiologist make come in and talk to you about now as well.
When it’s about time for your surgery, you’ll be put in a wheelchair and taken to the OR or procedure room. In this room you’ll be asked to lay down on an eye bed, which is a specialized stretcher used for eye cases. Your nurse or an assistant will put a blood pressure cuff on your arm, an oxygen monitor on your finger and attach you to an EKG monitor. The nurse will then prep your eye and part of your face with a Betadine solution.
The anesthesiologist will give you some medicine to make you relaxed ( our facility uses Versed and Fentanyl) but we don’t want you to go to sleep.
The surgical assistant will put a sterile drape over your face and put a special tape on your eyelashes to keep them out of the way and protect against infection.
The surgeon or assistant uses a speculum to hold you eyelids open and the actual surgery begins.
During all this the happy juice has kicked in so you probably won’t mind any of the taping etc.
During the surgery, you’ll see a very bright light that comes from the microscope the surgeon uses, and you’ll hear some chirping or buzzing noises coming from the machine that actually breaks up and removes your cataract. Your surgeon may remind you to keep your head still during the surgery. Any small movements you make are magnified through the microscope. You may see some shadows or colored light as your new lens is inserted.
When the surgery is finished, you’ll be asked to get back in the wheelchair and be taken to Post-Op. You’ll stay there for about 20 mins and then be on your way home.
A few other things:
You won’t be able to eat anything after midnight the night before the surgery. This is honestly the absolute WORST part of cataract surgery. I’m not kidding.
The Versed has an amnesiac effect so you might not remember a lot about your surgery after a few days.
The incision made is so small it’s usually self sealing and only rarely do patients need a stitch.
You’ll have to wear some really stylin’ huge sunglasses the day of surgery, even indoors, because of the pupil dilation.
You should only need to wear an eye shield to bed for about a week, no other dressing or bandage.
Your vision will be blurry the day of surgery (also because of the dilation) but should be fine within the next day or so.
You’ll have to put drops in your eyes several times a day for a week or so.
It’s standard practice to operate on one eye at a time, so if you have bilateral cataracts, you’ll come back in a week or two to have the other eye done.
The most common thing patients say when we tell them the surgery is over is “Really? He did it already??”
I’m really stoked that somebody on the Dope asked about something I’m kind of an expert in so if you have any other questions let
me know!
Oh, I forgot to add, you should be able to read just fine the next day. And you may be surprised at how bright and colorful things are!