What was your experience with vitrectomy eye surgery?

I had vitrectomy done on both eyes 6 years ago. It removed all the floaters. I've just recently had one show up, but it went away after a day.

Playing shortstop in a softball game, I bent over for a ground ball. When I straightened up, I could see nothing through my right eye. A blood vessel in the eye had burst, filling the eye with blood. A vitrectomy restored my vision, and I have never had a minute of pain or any other issue. And that was some twenty years ago.

Vitrectomy on my left eye to remove significant floaters and vitreous opacity 1 month ago. And did my right eye one week ago as well. Seeing absolutely perfectly, no pain. Just a few weeks of no lifting or hard physical activity and then I'm back doing everything again. I made sure to have a really good doctor! Do your homework on that, definitely.

Thank you for sharing! I had cataract surgeries last year and after a brief period of absolutely pristine vision developed bad floaters in both eyes. After more than 10 months of waiting, hoping that my "brain would learn to ignore the floaters" (didn't happen), I am now scheduled for my first vitrectomy. Hoping to regain that perfect vision again.

I’ll try to be concise: I had cataract surgeries and pretty successful FOVs on each eye over a couple of years. Because of some bothersome residual floaters in the left eye, I asked the surgeon for a 2nd FOV to “clean out” the remainder.

He described the surgery risk profile as, essentially, -0- risk. He said the only notable risk, infection, was only 1 in 7,500 (.00013) and he’d never had one in 35 years, so he considered the surgery risk 0.

I had the surgery, got a vitreous hemorrhage and an infection. I had severe pain and full loss of sight in first day post surgery (Friday night). Despite this, they waited till after the weekend to give me an antibiotic shot. Then, despite months of promises that my vision would return to normal, it did not. Due to the retinal damage caused by the infection, I have central scotomas and photopsia that block and distort my vision. The damage is permanent.

So, though I’m 1 in 7,500 or so that get an infection during vitrectomy, I am that ONE. I’d advise to have your surgery early in the week so you don’t have to deal with BOTHERING a preeminent surgeon to treat an infection on the weekend.

I had my left eye done 10 days ago. Had my second follow up appointment yesterday and everything is good. I did get one small floater since the surgery but not bothersome. I had very little pain and vision is now 20-25 in that eye. The drops 4 times a day are the only downside but well worth the effort.

Two days ago I had my first vitrectomy in my right eye. Everything is going really well. At yesterday's post-op I have 20/20 vision in that eye with a 30% gas bubble. Minimal discomfort and swelling. I don't appreciate any floaters in this eye, just some light "streaks" emanating from the gas bubble. The bubble distorts my lower vision, but sitting at my desk typing this on the computer I see perfectly. (I have a Vivity Extended Range of Focus lens in my right eye and a Panoptix Multifocal lens in my left eye).

I'm extremely careful and doing everything I can to keep the eye clean in order to prevent infection. (Clean towels, cleaning around the eye with alcohol, not touching my eye, wearing the eye shield at night, etc.).

I'll report back after my one week follow up.

I am so sorry about your experience. This has been my greatest fear - damage worse than the floaters. So far I am doing well.

Did you need to keep your head down for days afterwards? I have surgery scheduled for the fall, and this is really bothering me.

Yes, I had to stay face down for 5 days. The doctor said I could sleep on my side but had to stay face down other than that. The key to staying sane is good preparation. Buying a face-down chair, the kind used by massage therapists, was a godsend.