These blocks are designed to numb the eye in order to perform eye surgery avoiding the need for a general anaesthetic. Occasionally your anaesthetist will ask you whether you would like some mild sedation for the procedure. If you would like sedation please contact us prior to your surgery.
This block involves having some local anaesthetic eye drops before the anaesthetist injects some local anaesthetic around the eye. This injection can cause mild discomfort and last less than a minute. The vision in the same eye may then become blurred.
The risks of having this block are minimal, but include:
- Some minor bleeding around the eye
- Inadequate pain relief - which can be treated by the surgeon
- Rarely damage to the eye ball
In order to have cataract surgery under a regional anaesthetic it is important that you are able to lie flat or nearly flat for about 15 minutes. If you feel you are unable to do this please Contact Us. It is also important to let us know if you are taking any blood thinning medications such as Warfarin for example.