Risks of Eye Surgery

I wish I could provide a guarantee of success to every patient of mine. However, despite my extensive experience performing successful eye surgeries on thousands of individuals, surgery, much like life itself, is never 100% risk free.

Serious risks from eye surgery are very low but still remain a possibilty

I like to put it this way – having surgery is like driving a car or taking public transport. Although the risk of getting into an accident is very low, we take that calculated risk almost every day. Why is that? Because the benefits outweigh the risks. Because despite the very small chance that something could go wrong, we need to get on with our families, work and lives.

Surgery is the same – that’s why when I talk to patients about surgery, I always

Discuss alternatives to surgery, if applicable, and whether it will provide good outcomes
Discuss pros and cons of surgery, and the most likely outcomes if proceeding OR not proceeding with surgery
Encourage trusted family member(s) or friend(s) to come along to help ask questions and be a second pair of ears
Don’t rush a patient into any surgery, as this is an important decision that needs deliberation and thought. You do not have to make a decision on the same day you consult with me.

Keep reading if you want to know specific risks of surgery

Surgical complications range from mild & temporary to severe & permanent.

Mild – usually temporary and can be resolved
- things like bleeding and mild pain are very common after surgery and not even considered complications, but are good for patients to be aware of. These can be managed usually with eye drops and some simple painkillers
- Sometimes mild inflammation can persist, and may result in fluid under the retina. These usually can be managed with drops, and in non-improving cases, eye injections.

Moderate – usually manageable with medications or further procedures (e.g. laser or surgery)
- Not perfect vision requiring further correction with glasses, laser or further surgery
- Vision that does not improve despite glasses or surgery - this is sometimes due to pre-existing damage from conditions such as a retinal detachment or macular degeneration (thus not really considered a complication)
- Retinal detachments
- High pressures in the eye (e.g. glaucoma)

Severe – worst-case scenarios that are very rare (1 in 2000-3000 (0.05%) chance of happening)
- blindness from a severe eye infection after surgery. There are various methods we can use to treat this urgently, but unfortunately sometimes an infection can be very aggressive and cause irreversible damage. Hence that’s why I am very particular about patient’s hand hygiene and post operative care of their eyes.
- As alluded to at the beginning, the risk of this happening is approximately similar to getting into a motor vehicle accident in Greater Melbourne – the risk of this in 2019 was 1 in 1612 (0.06%). https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/crash-statistics-analysis-report-2019-trafficworks.pdf
- Additionally there is the risk of a very, very rare condition called sympathetic ophthalmia. This is a condition where the non-operated eye starts to develop bad inflammation due to surgery in the other eye. As mentioned, this is a very rare occurrence and the chance of this happening is estimated to be around 1 in 3.3 million. See linked publication. If caught early and treated, most patients are able to preserve their eyesight. However long term treatment with medications that suppress your immune system will be needed.

In conclusion, despite the low complication rates, eye surgery is not completely risk-free. All the above, however are generalisations and will vary with your situation. This will be discussed in as much depth as you would like during your consultation with me. Last but not least, what I can and will promise you is this -- that I will treat you or your loved ones as I would my own family, and will give my utmost and very best.