False Eye Fitting

The false eye fitting surgery is the surgery that consists of removing an eye via eye surgeries like enucleation, evisceration & even exenteration and replacing it with an implant and an artificial ocular prosthesis (false eye). The surgery is needed in case of ocular tumors, such as the retinoblastoma , choroidal Metastasis and choroidal melanoma.

There are three types of the surgery. The evisceration, which consists of removing the iris, cornea and the internal eye contents, leaving behind the sclera and the extraocular muscles. It is first type of surgery. The orbital implant is placed within the eye sheet in this surgery and as the extra-ocular muscles are intact, this type of surgery may give best artificial eye movements. However, an evisceration cannot be performed in cases with eye cancer, as the eye cancer can spread post the surgery. The second type of surgery is the enucleation, a surgery needed usually when there's an intraocular tumor; it consists in removing the eyeball, and leaving the eyelids and the eye socket's adjacent structures. The myoconjunctivalenucleation, popularized by Dr. Debraj Shome & a few other oculoplastic surgeon in India, uses the muscles in a manner deigned to cause best ocular motility of the artficial prosthetic eye. Theexenteration, that usually happens together with the removal of the maxilla (the maxillectomy), consists of removing all the eye socket's content: the eyeball, muscles, fat and other adjacent structures. Sometimes, the eyelids can be removed as well. After the surgery, the oculoplastic surgeon, together with an ocularist, will peform an artificial eye fitting surgery, through which you'll be given an artificial eye which can move and look just like a normal eye.

Right after the prosthetic eye fitting surgery you will not feel pain, just some pressure on the eyelid of the eye that has been removed. In case you feel any pain in your eyes or throat, because of the surgery, you should tell the nurses and they will give you some treatment right away. After the surgery, however, you should not use aspirin or any other aspirin-based painkillers, because they will make the blood thinner. Also, after the effects of the general anesthesia will be gone, you will feel the muscles of the removed eye react along with the muscles of the good eye. In order to avoid too much pain, you shouldn't move your good eye too fast or too much. During all your recovery period, you have to clean your eye socket everyday, multiple times per day. A nurse will help you and teach you how to properly clean it, so that you won’t develop an infection. You should also use eye drops during the recovery period as prescribed by the doctor. After it will be over, however, you can get an artificial eye, with the help of an ocularist. The artificial eye fitting will be as similar as possible to the other one, and it will also move, so that there won't be any noticeable differences. Today is the era of custom made, hand painted acrylic eye prosthesis, in which the color of the iris and even the blood vessels are matched with the normal eye, to give the best looking artificial eye, which no one realizes is not real! The artificial eye also needs to be cleaned and taken special care of.