Dear patients, we would like to sincerely thank you for your trust, cooperation and support to our surgical team during the perioperative period, the following are the precautions you should take after surgery, please read them carefully.
I. What should I pay attention to when I go home on the day after surgery?
① Do not take off the gauze and order eye drops on the day of surgery: we have already used antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs at the end of your surgery, so there is no need to order eye drops on the day of surgery.
② Mild discomfort in the operated eye may occur, but it will not be severe pain or cause a general condition: It is normal to feel mild discomfort in the operated eye the night after surgery. If the operated eye is severely distended and painful, or even accompanied by headache, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms, please make sure you go to the ophthalmology department in time to avoid delaying the condition.
③ Pay attention to the hygiene of the operated eye after surgery: Please pay attention to your personal hygiene after eye surgery to prevent infection. You can scrub your face with a towel within 1 week after surgery, but do not rub your eyes. Avoid choking with oil and fumes, avoid splashing sewage into your eyes, and wear glasses when you go out on sandy days.
④ Avoid exertion and trauma: please eat more vegetables and fruits, avoid spicy and stimulating or too hard foods, keep bowel movements smooth, avoid forceful defecation, violent coughing, excessive eye rubbing and lifting heavy objects; pay attention to safety and avoid trauma.
⑤ If you experience sudden vision loss, eye redness, eye swelling and pain and other uncomfortable symptoms in the operated eye before the follow-up consultation time, please make sure to consult the doctor promptly (Peking University Eye Center provides 24-hour emergency service throughout the year).
Some common problems one day to three months after surgery
1. Registration for re-examination: the first day, the first to second week, and three months after cataract surgery, a total of three times.
The first day after surgery, please follow the nurse’s request to register, the first week and three months: every Monday afternoon in the specialist three consultation room (try to come back after 2:30, there are many patients at 1:30!)
First day post-operative review: doctors mainly look at post-operative reactions and the need for further treatment.
1~2 weeks post-operative review: mainly to see if there is any delayed inflammatory reaction and if there is any increase in intraocular pressure
3 months after surgery: the eye condition has been stabilized, mainly optometry: to give the patient better visual quality; IOP measurement: to prevent the possibility of glaucoma.
2, I am not convenient to come for review (physical, family, out-of-town patients, etc.), is it possible to go to other hospitals for review?
Generally yes (you need to ask Dr. Xiaoyong, some special conditions are best reviewed by the surgeon himself)
3.When can I get glasses?
Generally, it takes 3 months after surgery for your eyes to become completely stable, so it is recommended that you go back for glasses 3 months after surgery. If you are a highly myopic patient, you should first temporarily wear 300-degree myopic glasses (preferably not too expensive, because the degree change will be wasted at 3 months).
Third, what about dry eye after cataract surgery?
With the continuous improvement of cataract ultrasound emulsion surgery, more and more cataract patients have obtained satisfactory vision through perfect and precise surgery, but some patients complain to the doctor after the surgery that their vision is clear, but they feel uncomfortable, dry, astringent, and a bit burning, and sometimes they feel like there is a foreign object poking their eyes, and they cannot open their eyes in the morning. Other patients complain that they can watch TV clearly at first, but it becomes blurry after watching for a long time. If these patients are treated in the hospital as general chronic conjunctivitis, they will find that the discomfort never completely disappears, improves, or even worsens.
My advice to patients is that they can order artificial tear drops, such as sodium vitreous eye drops, for a long time. Many patients are often used to wash their faces with cold water, they can change their habits and use more hot compresses plus massage of the skin around the eyes, the symptoms can also be significantly relieved.
1.Why do you have this symptom before the surgery, but after the surgery, you will have this symptom, and the symptom will be aggravated instead of reduced after using antibiotics for a long time? Many patients often complain of dry eye after cataract surgery. In fact, many of them had dry eye before surgery, but they did not pay much attention to it and did not take it seriously. At the same time, surgery does cause some patients to develop dry eye in the short term after cataract surgery, which we call symptomatic dry eye. Research data shows that more than 30% of patients have dry eye symptoms after cataract surgery, but most of them can return to the condition before surgery after a period of time (3 months to 6 months).
2. Is post-operative dry eye serious? Will it make my eyes go blind?
Generally speaking, the symptoms of dry eye after cataract surgery are mostly mild dry eye (no damage to the cornea), so there is no need to worry too much. Even for patients with some degree of pre-existing dry eye, ultrasound emulsification is still a relatively safe procedure, and the procedure generally does not cause recurrent severe dry eye.
As long as the diagnosis is clear, use sodium vitreous eye drops, develop good habits, such as getting enough sleep, eating more fruits rich in vitamin A and vitamin C, applying hot compresses to both eyes, blinking more often, and reducing the time spent looking at the computer (some data suggest that the incidence of dry eye increases by 10% each year due to the presence of computers), and turn on the humidifier more often at home.
Insist on using sodium vitrate four times a day after surgery. Most patients will find relief within six months after surgery. If it does not work, you can add a lubricant before bedtime.
3.My eye discomfort is very severe, what should I do?
If the review reveals severe dry eye (tear secretion test, the test result is less than 5mm), the doctor can give the patient the method of tear point embolization. However, tear spot embolization is relatively expensive (usually embolization of 2 tear spots is about 980 RMB each, partially reimbursed by medical insurance personnel), so it is generally advisable for patients to order medication first and then do tear spot embolization when they are really uncomfortable.
Will I get cataract again after cataract surgery and what should I do if I do?
1.I could see very clearly when I just had the surgery, but somehow my vision became unclear again within a few months, and I even felt that it was almost the same as before the surgery, what happened?
This may be a case of post-operative cataract (as the old saying goes: you have cataracts again).
In fact, it is not a cataract again, but the proliferation, migration and fibrogenesis of the lens epithelium that remains in a very small number of patients after surgery, forming a posterior cataract. Laser treatment can be performed in the outpatient clinic, which is very simple and effective.
2. I am a foreign patient with posterior cataract, do I need to go to Beijing for treatment?
If laser treatment is available locally, it can be done locally. Laser incision of the posterior capsule is relatively simple and can be done quickly by an experienced doctor (tens of seconds in my experience). If the patient is from out of town, the time and financial cost of the round trip is so much that it is not really worth to come to Beijing for the laser incision.
V. Important Tips
Cataract surgery does not usually cause systemic problems or eyelid (commonly known as eyelid) problems. It is not true that any systemic or eye problems that occur after cataract surgery are related to the surgery. Short-term eye discomfort symptoms may occur after cataract surgery, and very few people may experience vision loss after 1 to 2 months, but other conditions are generally not related to cataract surgery. If no problems are found during the review and you go home with general discomfort or other problems with your eyes, please consult other medical departments or doctors who may be involved.
These are the doctor’s tips for review information for patients who have had surgery done by me. I will do my best to help my patients do well and get through the surgery and review period smoothly.
I had my surgery done by another doctor, but I think there is something wrong with the surgery, or my surgeon is particularly busy, or I can’t get a number from my surgeon, can I get a review from my doctor?
Doctors juggle clinical work and administration, and are no more free than any cataract surgeon in Beijing. Therefore, please understand that they are unable to perform routine review work for post-operative patients of other doctors.
Hospitals have a mature review system for cataract surgery, and surgeons have the responsibility and obligation to review their own patients, even if they are temporarily occupied. Patients who are operated by other surgeons should be reviewed by the surgeon himself or by the surgeon’s request. Please be sure that the surgeon is happy to see that he/she has brought light to the patient and will not refuse to review his/her patient if the surgery was successful. At the same time, the hospital is part of the community, and our ophthalmology department is a united team, so we will not let you personally affect the unity of the department.
Please understand the above.
I wish you all good health!