After the Surgery
The surgery will take about 20 minutes and following the surgery the eye will be patched overnight. The next day the patch will be removed and you will begin the medicated eye drops four times daily or as instructed by Dr. Buzard. The eye may be slightly irritated with the sutures in place and will remain red until the sutures are removed at one week. Avoid rubbing the eye since the new conjunctival flap is thin and delicate (artificial tears will help). The sutures will be removed about one week after the surgery. This is a painless procedure taking only a few minutes. Once the sutures are out the redness will begin to go away, but you will need to continue using the medicated eye drops for at least a month or even longer, as directed by Dr. Buzard. Sometimes special drops such as Mitomycin C will quiet the eye. The goal is to completely control redness, since this indication of inflammation will increase the likelihood of recurrence of the pterygium. With the surgical technique performed by Dr. Buzard, the chances of recurrence of the pterygium are about 15% over a 5-year period. This incidence can be increased if the surgery is being repeated or if you do not use artificial tears and avoid excessive sun exposure and irritation to the eye.
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