Patients in Boca Raton, Miami, and Palm Beach who are scheduled for cataract surgery may be more focused on the procedure itself than on the preparation. Your cataract surgeon will give you a number of important instructions to follow before the day of your surgery. Here’s a little background on some of the preparation activities, and how they can help you avoid complications—and even reduce recovery time.
#1: Your Cataract Surgeon Will Prescribe Antibiotic & Anti-Inflammatory Eyedrops
Although a skilled cataract surgeon like SightTrust Eye Institute’s Dr. Andrew Shatz only takes about 10 minutes to perform cataract removal and refractive lens exchange in a single eye, preparation for the surgery begins three days in advance of the procedure. While your cataract surgeon will take the utmost care to prevent infection, he or she will also prescribe antibiotic drops, to be used three days prior to the surgical procedure. These drops provide further defense against the potential for eye infection.
The anti-inflammatory drops from your cataract surgeon will help keep your eye from uncomfortable swelling, during or after your cataract surgery. Your cataract surgeon will perform your surgery as gently as possible. However, with any incisions to the eye—even microscopic ones—there’s always the possibility that swelling may occur.
By calming the body’s natural inflammatory response before undertaking the surgery, your cataract doctor is helping to support the body’s healing process—and that’s good news for patients in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and Weston alike!
#2: Your Cataract Surgeon Will Instruct You Not to Eat or Drink for Several Hours Before Surgery
Since cataract surgery is a relatively painless procedure, no anesthesia is required. However, mild sedation is necessary. This is because even involuntary movements like sneezing, coughing, yawning, or swallowing could cause undesirable repercussions during your surgery.
To avoid complications from involuntary patient motion during eye surgery, your cataract surgeon will prescribe mild sedation for you during your cataract operation. In some cases, this sedation may cause nausea.
In order to prevent any dangers of adverse digestive reactions to the sedation, your cataract surgeon will advise you not to eat or drink for several hours prior to the procedure. For the sake of simplicity and safety, Dr. Shatz recommends that you not eat or drink anything after the clock strikes midnight on the date of your procedure.
And, although chewing gum, using lozenges, or eating mints may be considered soothing to some patients, Dr. Shatz also cautions against doing so after 11:59 p.m. on the night before your cataract surgery.
#3: Your Cataract Surgeon Will Give You Guidelines for Avoiding Eye Injuries
You may have no problem pulling a t-shirt over your head before your cataract surgery. But an experienced cataract surgeon like Dr. Shatz knows that you could easily injure your vulnerable eyes after surgery when you change your clothes later in the day.
After surgery, patients could accidentally rub or push against their healing eyes with the collar of a pullover shirt or undershirt, or the decorative trim of a full slip. To prevent this, Dr. Shatz counsels them to wear clothing like button-down shirts or dresses for their operation. These types of clothes can be changed later without being pulled over the patient’s head.
To further avoid injury to the healing eye, your cataract surgeon will ask you not to wear any jewelry prior to the procedure. Before you return home to Plantation, Weston, Miami, Palm Beach, Boca Raton, or Fort Lauderdale, your cataract surgeon will give you further instructions for post-operative care.
For more cataract surgery tips from Dr. Shatz and his caring staff, call SightTrust Eye Institute today at (877) 878-7890.
