All about Enucleation surgery

In some situations the eye damage can be as much as no one can save it. So that must be removed by a surgery. This type of surgery is called enucleation. This damage can occur because of an injury, cancer or other causes.

In most cases after the patient had an this eye surgery and removed his eye, an artificial eye would replace his eye which is called prosthetic eye, ocular prosthesis or glass eye. We all know that a prosthetic eye cannot give the patient’s sight back but it can help him to have a better look.

During the surgery

During the enucleation surgery the whole eye is took out but the eye’s muscles and the other parts would remain. After the prosthetic eye implantation the muscles would be attached to it so that the patient can move the prothetic eye too.

There may be some problems if the patient cannot agree with this surgey and his mental status becomes inappropriate. There have been some discussions between the surgeons about the surgery and its effects on the patient. In most cases the eye doctors would firstly test the eye and find out if it is responsive to light. If it isn’t or the eye is deformed, so they suggest this surgery to remove the eye. But the problem is, it can be followed with psychological troubles, and in this way the surgeons try to help the patient to know both the pros and cons of this type of surgery, then consider with authority and without any bad mental status.

When is the surgery needed?

Enucleation is mostly needed in the situations that patient has an eye cancer such as retinoblastoma or choroidal melanoma. Another reason is eye trauma. There are some patients who have an eye infection which is unstoppable, this infection might lead to an eye removal. Specialists say that end stage glaucoma or every cause of uncontrollable pain in the eye can be the reason of enucleation too.

What are the symptoms that lead to this surgery?

There are some indications for the mentioned surgery that you should know. They are mentioned below:

• One of the indications is microphthalmos (it is an eye disorder that one or both of your eyes would be unusually small and have deformity)
• In some cases, if you have a blind eye and you suffer from a severe pain
• Specialists claim that sympathetic ophthalmia can be a symptom
• If you are in a situation of malignancy of eye (or even if there is chance of it) such as retinoblastoma or uveal melanoma, you are a candidate of it
• Eye injuries like trauma

Complications and risks of enucleation surgery

As you know every surgery has risks, and this surgery is not an exception. We mention these complications below:

• Eye infection is possible
• Entropion and ectropion is also possible
• One possibility is ptosis
• Your wound may get open
• The conformer may get out
• The implant location might change
• Your implant may be exposed
• Bleeding
• Your extraocular muscles might get hurt during the surgery
• The implant might get out