With the progress of society and aging, cataract surgery is no longer a mystery among the elderly, and many of them have gained a second spring in their lives due to cataract surgery. They pick up their cameras to go out and travel, pick up their brushes to paint again, and so on. Their lives have become more fulfilling because they have regained good vision.
The popularity and maturity of cataract ultrasound emulsification in recent years has greatly reduced the operation time. This has led to some misconceptions that the surgery is very simple. They think that the surgery will be over once they lie down on the surgery bed and take a nap. It seems that the surgery has nothing to do with them at all. In fact, cataract surgery has a lot to do with everyone. In these years of work experience, my own experience is that it is better to prepare elderly patients before, during and after surgery.
First let’s take a brief look at what cataract ultrasound emulsification surgery is. The surgeon makes a 3.2mm surgical incision at the patient’s corneal limbus. Then, through this incision, a device that generates ultrasound energy is placed to break the nucleus of the lens in our eye through the energy generated by ultrasound, and the broken nucleus is sucked out using another function of the same device. After the adjustment, the procedure is over. This is the simple procedure of cataract ultrasound emulsification surgery.
Then what do elderly people need to do to prepare before the surgery?
1.Psychological preparation: Because the surgery is carried out in the sober condition of elderly friends, in the sober condition, moving knives and shears in front of people’s eyes or even in their eyes, needless to say others, I myself am also very nervous. Once a person is nervous, some behaviors will be involuntary, such as: breathing will become rapid, will feel breath-holding, muscles will be tense, head will be tilted in one direction, eyes will be turned upward, eyes will be turned around. This will not cooperate well with the surgery and may lead to unnecessary complications during the operation. So how can you not be nervous? If you are sure you want to have cataract surgery, I think you should first talk to your friends who have already had the surgery and get some experience from them. Let yourself be prepared.
2. Once your mind is ready, the next step is to do a little bit of practice before the surgery to cooperate in the surgery. First of all, you have to relax your mind. If you relax your mind, your muscles will not be tense and your breathing will not be rapid. What else do you need to do besides mental relaxation? You can practice lying down without pillows at home, people are used to sleeping with pillows, once there is no pillow is uncomfortable, especially some fat elderly friends, without pillows will feel breathing problems, easy to feel suffocated. At this time you have to learn to breathe through the mouth, so that the intake of air is large, you will not feel suffocated, in addition, in lying down, in learning to breathe through the mouth at the same time, but also learn to look at the light directly in front. If you have done these things, the surgery will be half successful. People always say that it is not easy for cataract surgery surgeons, I say it is not easy for elderly people who have cataract surgery.
3.After determining the surgery time, I suggest you take a shower before the surgery, because after the surgery we suggest that the elderly friends who have the surgery should not let their eyes get water for a week.
4.For those who have a cough, I suggest you go to the respiratory department and ask the physician to give you some treatment so that you don’t cough during the surgery. If you are a smoker, I suggest you to quit smoking. If you cannot quit smoking, please quit smoking temporarily during the surgery. This is because smoking tends to cause coughing and phlegm production. Coughing will affect the wound healing, and in serious cases will cause wound bleeding, which will seriously affect the post-operative vision.
5, many elderly friends with age aging, more or less have a variety of age-related diseases: coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease and so on. And, many elderly people suffer from some age-related diseases long-term oral anticoagulant drugs like Warfarin, glass and other drugs. People may ask whether cataract surgery can be performed while they are suffering from these diseases and taking these drugs orally. We say that in general, as long as the general condition is good, the mental clarity is clear, and the doctor can cooperate with the work, they can do the surgery; for those who suffer from senile diseases, we will finish the surgery under cardiac monitoring and oxygen absorption to ensure the smooth and safe surgery. Then, do you need to stop all kinds of anticoagulants when doing cataract surgery? We have paid close attention to the surgical details and surgical skills, and now there is no need to stop all kinds of anticoagulants before doing cataract surgery in Beijing Anzhen Hospital.