Vitrectomy

[MrsB]

Hi
I'm new to this forum and am looking for some advice from anyone about a vitrectomy.

I have been a T1 since i was 13 (38 now). I last had a retinopathy check up in July and was told all was ok but had a sudden big haemorrhage in one eye a month ago. Was told I have proliferative retinopathy and had a round of scatter laser treatment. Have no big black spots or anything, just completely blurred vision as my vitreous gel is full of blood. Been told I need a vitrectomy in the next couple of weeks and am a bit worried.

Has anyone out there had the op for this? There is loads of info about the op and aftercare but little from anyone who has been there, done that,

I'm worried about time off work, looking after my 7yr old, results.... Everything really

Thanks

 

[noramaria]

I am T1 since 1980 and I had a vitrectomy twice, one in each eye. This was more than 10 yrs ago and I was in hospital for just a few days each time. The results were very good and I wish you well in your surgery and relax it will b fine. Ber. :thumbup:

 

[noblehead]

I had a vitrectomy in my left eye, the operation lasted about 4 hours and the recovery period was several weeks until things settles down and I no longer had to put drops in, it's well worth it and has a very high success rate, the Ophthalmology teams are great and will monitor your progress closely thereafter.

The following.....by a million miles is the best site for anything to do with diabetic retinopathy, have a good look round as there's loads of useful there:

http://medweb.bham.ac.uk/easdec/vitreou ... age.html#v

Good luck and hope the operation goes well!

 

[hanadr]

Vitrectomy CAN be successful, but may not. My husband had one and they tore his retina. He'd had several laser treatments. He's pretty much lost the sight of that eye and would have been better off without the surgery. I would do a LOT of research on the surgeon involved and check out his record. They do try to hide the risks. In addition make sure a good experienced surgeon will not be handing over to a less experienced one on the day.
Hana

 

[MrsB]

Thanks for the support. I had the op on Thursday and apparently all went well. Am now spending the next week having to lay on my back and stare at the ceiling. Can't see anything yet but have my fingers crossed. Am having horrendous trouble keeping my sugars down though. there are a few ketone issues. Anyone know of any top tips for getting rid of them? Really don't want to have to go back into hospital again

 

[noblehead]

Thanks for the support. I had the op on Thursday and apparently all went well. Am now spending the next week having to lay on my back and stare at the ceiling. Can't see anything yet but have my fingers crossed. Am having horrendous trouble keeping my sugars down though. there are a few ketone issues. Anyone know of any top tips for getting rid of them? Really don't want to have to go back into hospital again

I had the same trouble, was told to lie on my side for 10 days due to the gas bubble in my eye and bg was higher than normal. I put this down to recovering from the operation and inactivity which will be the same for you MrsB, to compensate you need to increase both your basal and bolus insulins in order to get your bg down, as you say you don't want to be back in hospital again due to DKA :roll:

Pleased the operation went well, the vision takes around a few weeks to get back to normal although the eye drops do make the vision blurry, persevere and hopefully all will turn out fine!

 

[jopar]

Glad to hear everything went well...

Your BG's are probably up for two reasons

1, the body is working hard to repair the surgery
2, Steroids in your eye drops

My husband had this done 14 years ago, his hemorrhage detached the retina so they had to repair this as well, so he spent around a week in hospital and when he got home had to continual for several weeks posturing, lying on different sides for set amount of time.

It wasn't know how well the retina repair would go and how much impact this would have on his sight, but it went better than expected with some loss to his peripheral vision and caused night blindness. He did have to have a zap with the lazer on a post op check up, but since then he's had no further problems with this eye.

 

[wendy41]

My husband has been a type 1 diabetic for over 30 years and recently had surgery for a cataract in his right eye . Unfortunately there were problems and part of his lens and cataract broke off and ended up in the vitreous humor at the back of the eye. This resulted in an emergency vitrectomy to clean out the fluid and put in a new lens. The op went well the eye pressure was a little raised but after nearly 3 weeks his vision is showing limited improvement. We had a visit to his surgeon today who indicatetd that the pressure was a little raised and there was some scar tissue and swelling on the retina , which might require further surgery. We have a further review in 5 weeks so obviously thwy don't seem to alarmed. My husband had laser treatment two years ago for mild leakage in the blood vessels. The surgeon seemd very unclear as to whether the problems were linked to his diabetes. Has anyone had any experience of any of these procedures ??? Thanks

 

[katemead]

Hi I had the vitrectomy with a great outcome I have been Diabetic for 30 years and was nervous about the operation like yourself, all ok got a check back late January so will let you know how it goes (had my operation in September 2013 x

 

[MrsB]

Thanks for your responses. I'm now 5 Weeks post op and am desperately waiting for the gas bubble to disappear. Have now got blurred vision in my eye but can't tell what the final outcome will be as a lot of the blurring is due to reflections etc off the bubble. Is still better than it was tho . Can't wait to get back to work (work on a computer all day and the glare is not exactly compatible with a bubble)

 

[noblehead]

Thanks for your responses. I'm now 5 Weeks post op and am desperately waiting for the gas bubble to disappear. Have now got blurred vision in my eye but can't tell what the final outcome will be as a lot of the blurring is due to reflections etc off the bubble. Is still better than it was tho . Can't wait to get back to work (work on a computer all day and the glare is not exactly compatible with a bubble)

Hopefully not too long now before things settle down MrsB, good luck and thanks for letting us know how you were getting on.

 

[MrsB]

Yay. I can now finally drive again after 8 weeks! Gas bubble took 7 to disperse which was a lot longer than I thought but could have been worse I suppose.

My vision isn't back to normal unfortunately tho as the dr seems to have gone space invaders mad with the laser and I have loads of scar tissue in there now. This makes everything look out of focus more than 2 metres away which has annoyed me a bit. I can at least see though which is better than the alternative.

In hindsight I think I would still have the op again.

Thanks for all the support.


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[celala]

Hi I've just joined the forum and was very interested in your experiences of the vitrectomy procedure. I am a T1 on a insulin pump and have had diabetes for 30 years. I have been having lucentis injections for nearly a year now after several laser treatments since 2010. I saw My consultant last week who told me that I could possibly need to have a vitrectomy, cataract and vitreous peel surgery in my left eye, he told me that he couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't loose some vision, he gave me a couple of weeks to decide wether to go ahead or not! My question is How painful is the vitrectomy?

Did anyone have a vitreous peel?

Will Dvla except you for driving if you have had this sort of procedure?

I've also heard that the procedure is done under local anaesthetic?

I would be great full for any advice given thank you




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[the_anticarb]

hi there. I have had a vitectomy with delamination (think that is the same as a peel? ie they scrape away the unwanted blood vessles from the retina.
Done under local anaesthetic with sedation - wasn't painful just uncomfortable lying still - and kind of weird watching them work on my eye - the only operation you get to watch!

DVLA won't care so long as you can pass the field test - my consultant advised me to wait a few months before doing the field test so you are not still recovering from the op.

Recovery time for me was four weeks.

Surgeon tore a small hole in my retina which means some permanent peripheral field loss but I can barely notice it with the affected eye, it is in the corner of my vision, and with both eyes cannot notice it at all as the other eye fills in the gaps. Still was a bummer to realise I had permanent damage though (especially as the surgeon didn't tell me it had happened...but that's another story)

Pain wise don't worry, you will be under a local and given painkillers after. For me the most painful part of the whole thing was the iodine wash they gave me the week before to inject avastin, now that stung for hours. I found it quite hard to lie still for 2 hours but if you are under sedation it's not too bad, you just kind of zone out whilst they get on with it.