What can you tell me about retinal reattachment....? doctors only please.?!
Question:
What can you tell me about retinal reattachment....? doctors only please.?
My wife had to have this procedure done last year. It was pretty bad because of how long she had gone without realizing that something was wrong. She asked the doctor if she would be able to ride any roller coasters now or would she run the risk of damaging her eye. The doctor advised against riding anything "too wild" (this can be pretty subjective). She would like another opinion on this since we feel that we may have put the doctor on the spot. Given the climate for suing today he may have given us a much stronger warning than needed so that in the event something did happen, it could not come back on him. I don't blame him for doing so, we would just like an annonymous opinion.
Answers:
Of the several retinal surgeries that I saw and assisted in when I was in training, around half of these did not recover very well and a fourth of these actually did re-detach.
My friend who is a retina specialist always emphasizes that retinal detachment surgery is a "sight saving" procedure and not a"sight restoring" procedure.
Once you've had a retinal detachment, there is ALWAYS a higher risk for retinal detachment (in this case re-detachment). The risk is higher than for "normal" people.
As was already stated, it would be best to avoid activities that will put excessive or sudden changes in eye pressure, it would also be a good idea to avoid activities that involve sudden jerky movements (i.e. a very "wild" roller coaster, bungee jumping).
The prognosis for re-detachment surgery is not very good. It would be best to avoid it.