eye op

[rinksmum]

I've posted a similar thread to this before, but now that we've seen a doctor, I thought I'd try again to see if anyone else has any experience of this...

My 4-month old ds has congential ptosis (a drooping eyelid) and the paediatric opthamologist has recommended urgent surgery for him , to hopefully prevent problems with his vision in the future. Is anyone of aware of others who have had this surgery, or the condition? Any advice would be appreciated !

[littledarling]

Hi there . I'm an Orthoptist and I work in a day surgery for eyes. We don't do paediartics, but I have seen a lot of ptosis surgery on adults. Depending if he has any muscle function in his eyelid or not will determine what they actually do in the surgery. They may either attach the eyelid muscle to the eyebrow muscle, or just shorten the eyelid muscle so it doesn't droop as much. The surgery itself is quite simple and rarely are there ever complications. In adults they just do it under a local anaesthetic (not sure about with kids), and it only takes about 1/2 hr. Expect the eyelid to be quite bruised after (like a black eye!) for about a week- 10 days. Use lots of ice packs during first 2 days if you can to help with swelling. The only prob with the op is that if the eyelids don't look even after, they may want to go back and do a 2nd op. I think your doctor is right though, if you leave the eyelid drooping it may interfer with the development of his vision. All in all though I do think it is a relatively simple procedure and he will be fine.
Good luck! I hope this helped a bit.

[rinksmum]

Hi littledarling ,

Thanks so much for replying, you have put my mind more at rest ! I know that surgery is the best thing to do for the sake of his vision, but of course I also worry that at such a small age the doc won't really have the best idea of what his eye is 'supposed' to look like, if that makes any sense? But if he needs another op down the line to correct that, then so be it - the main thing is to get his vision sorted first . I had hoped it would be a pretty quick op, and I imagine the process will be fairly similar with kids (altho maybe gen anasthetic since he might not stay very still otherwise !). Thanks for the warning about the bruising too - I'll make sure I have plenty of ice-packs ready!

Thanks again...