Eye Surgery

Question: Why conscious during eye surgery?

(Posted by: Neens on 2010-02-19 12:56:36)

Hello: Does anyone know the reasoning behind why you need to be conscious when getting surgery on your eyes? Thank you

Posted by: Judy B on 2010-02-19, 19:03:03

General anaesthesia carries risk and should be avoided if possible. Many kinds of eye surgery are not invasive or painful enough to warrant the use of general anaesthesia and are safer to do with local. Other kinds of eye surgery do require general anaesthesia.

Posted by: Meg on 2010-02-19, 12:59:25

Eye surgeries are successful using local anesthesia. General anesthesia is risky and is just unnecessary. Doctors will not use sedation that puts you to sleep unless it's absolutely necessary. Local anesthesia does the job.

Posted by: Designer~Wife on 2010-02-19, 12:59:32

With sedation there are always risks, so they do not do it unless it is necessary - With eye surgery, it is easy for them to numb the eye making sedation unwarranted.

Posted by: umdbhik on 2010-02-19, 13:17:09

Some surgeries are done under general anesthesia due to the level of invasiveness within the eye such as retinal surgeries, and others are done under general anesthesia due to the overal level of discomfort a nonsedated patient would experience, like eye muscle surgery. More "benign " procedures like lid surgery or cataract surgery are generally done with a local sedation.