Patients who are planned to have cataract eye surgery should know about common symptoms after cataract surgery.
These symptoms are benign and common after cataract surgery and subside with certain medications and eye drops within few days to few weeks. Patients must know these things so they can know when to contact their eye surgeons.
Mild Eye Discomfort. For a few days following your surgery, your eye may feel sore or achy and you will probably experience sensitivity to light and touch. Your surgeon may suggest that this discomfort be treated with over-the-counter pain relievers. If symptoms persist, you may be prescribed other medications or treatments.
Eye itching. It is normal for your eyes to have slight redness and feel irritated or gritty after cataract surgery. There may also be some fluid discharge which can cause further discomfort. These symptoms will clear up within a few days, and it is important to avoid rubbing or touching your eyes during this time.
Foreign Body Sensation. During the recovery process you may feel like there is something, such as an eyelash or grain of sand, in your eye. Although this can be quite irritating, it is a normal part of the healing process and the feeling will diminish as the eye heals.
Blurred Vision. Most of the time, your vision will be blurry due to corneal edema and anterior chamber inflammation which are common after ocular surgery. With medications, these two causes subside and your vision improve gradually over a week.
Eye Pain. It is common after cataract surgery to have mild eye pain. The wound that is created in the cornea for the phaco surgery can be the main cause of pain. Other causes of this pain are manipulation of conjunctiva, trauma to the iris during surgery which is a common thing. You should contact your eye doctor if you have severe eye pain that is associated with headache, nausea and vomiting.
Red Eye. For the first few days, redness of the eye is common, It can be either diffuse redness for the whole eye or part of the eye.Its incidence occurs more in old age and people who are on anticoagulant medications such as Aspirin.
