Now, if this is the year that you finally decide to take action, with treating your eye floaters and you feel that vitrectomy is what you want to look into, then in this video, I’m going to give you some pretty important tips and questions to get answers to before you make your final decision.
If you’re thinking about getting a vitrectomy done, it’s likely to be something that you have to pay for yourself, this is true even in the UK, where most of us are used to free health care and in places that have insurance-based health care like the United States, you may well find that your insurance will not cover this procedure. This means that it’s entirely up to you to do your research as the choice isn’t made for you by the National Health Service or you may not be provided with a list of recommended surgeons by your insurance company. So it’s all the more important that you ask the right questions to satisfy yourself;
- First of all, you are in safe hands.
- Secondly, that you know what the risks are?
- And thirdly, you know what to expect after the surgery?
So with these three things in mind, I suggest that you make a shortlist of clinics and surgeons based on recommendations and then go into more detail and get the answers to these key questions.
Number 1
So who will be doing the surgery? This is important to ask because as professionals, that clinician will have their clinical decision-making process. So if you spend all your time asking the individual questions and then on the day of your surgery you find that somebody else is doing the surgery, then you may well find that they make slightly different decisions to what you’ve already discussed.
Number 2
How many vitrectomies has my surgeon done? It may be helpful to know how many Floater Only Vitrectomies have done and also the non-Floater Only Vitrectomies they’ve done as well. This question just helps you to understand the level of experience that they’ve got with dealing with Floaters Only Vitrectomies as well as the general Vitrectomies that may have done while treating other vitro-retinal conditions.
Number 3
How many surgeries have they done recently? This just helps you to understand how current their experience is and also how up-to-date their procedures may well be.
Number 4
What are your success rates? So this is important to ask because then it just opens up the discussion to help you to be informed about the risks and also the number of people that have things going wrong compared to those who leave satisfied. This may also open up a discussion about what they deem to be a successful outcome.
Number 5
What complications can make it unsuccessful? This just helps to open up a discussion about what things can go wrong and also hopefully helps your surgeon to open up a discussion with you about how they reduce the risK of these things happening.
Number 6
What’s the benefit of a pars plana vitrectomy? So this question is just designed to open up a discussion just to confirm that it is a pars plana vitrectomy that you’re having. And just to inform you as well why they think that this is a beneficial way of doing it and also why it’s the gold standard way of doing a vitrectomy.
Number 7
Do you routinely suggest inducing a Posterior Vitreous Detachment for FOV’s? In this question, your surgeon will then have a discussion with you about the plan and whether their plan includes inducing a posterior vitreous detachment. This is done when you want to remove all of the vitreous out. This does carry more risk and it’s not a procedure that I think is done routinely for FOV’s, so it helps to just have that discussion with them. I’ve seen and heard of some people who have been offered and induced PVD posterior vitreous detachment as an option. So it’s been left kind of up to them and presumably, they’ve been informed both ways about it. But usually, if it’s not indicated, I wouldn’t imagine that this would be an option. But at least this opens up that discussion.
Number 8
Will I be 100% free of floaters post-operative? So this question just helps to manage, I think, your expectations and helps the clinic and the surgeon to be able to discuss that with you. I think personally maybe a bit unrealistic and setting the bar too high to expect zero floaters whatsoever you may have one or two possibly, so at least they can let you know what to expect and so that your expectations are not crushed if you find that you’ve got one spec after the operation.
Number 9,
How long should allow for the recovery of my vision post-operatively? This question is just about helping you to make sure you’re fully aware of what to expect after the operation in terms of your vision so that if you have plans to go back to work or do anything that is going to rely on, you know, having an optimum vision, then you can plan for that if you know what is realistic to expect.
Number 10
Can you share some of your post-operative patient testimonials for my type of surgery? I think this is a question that many surgeons will anticipate and there will be testimonials readily available. So you can certainly ask for more or if you didn’t get any in the first place, then this is an opportunity to be able to ask for that, certainly, there should be plenty of these testimonials available for you to access. Now, of course, you should go without saying that they should pose your questions in a non-confrontational way that any reputable clinic and surgeon would have no problems answering if they don’t cover these questions already.
Keep in mind that these aren’t necessarily the only questions that you should ask, but it’s a quick guide to the key types of questions that you want to satisfy yourself with. You can get some of the answers on the website, but ideally, you want to have a face-to-face conversation with someone to verify some of the answers, either before or during their pre-operative assessment, which may be offered by your clinic for free.
So let me know in the comments section below if you think there are any helpful questions to ask that I may have missed and I’m sure anyone considering it will appreciate your suggestions in the comments section below.
I do appreciate your continued support and I look forward to catching you in my next blog.
Take care.
