Eye Muscle Surgery

Occasionally a patient with double vision will require eye muscle surgery. There are six muscles around each eye. The pre-operative evaluation in the office is designed to determine which muscles should be operated on. Patients frequently are surprised that we may need to operate on the opposite eye or both eyes. We need at least two consistent measurements on two separate visits to feel comfortable that things are stable enough to operate.

Once we have consistent measurements, we can then schedule surgery. We can perform surgery either under local anesthesia with sedation or under general anesthesia. After Dr. McHenry and his anesthesiologist have spoken with you in pre-op, you will be given some sedation and then brought to the operating room. The surgery consists of isolating the muscles and moving them to the appropriate position. You will wake up in the recovery room with a patch on your eye. We will remove the patch in the morning. The stitches are microscopic and absorbable. They do not need to be removed. You may have some short-term double vision in the immediate post-operative period until the eyes begin to work together again.

If the eyes can be set close to straight, then the brain will lock in to increase the conoid, or three-dimensional space of single binocular vision. To achieve this, medicines, exercises and prisms may need to be used temporarily in the post-operative period.

We utilize all means to return your vision to normal. To that end even after all this is done some patients may require new glasses.