View 2019 Abstracts

Growing evidence suggested that patients living with anophthalmia have lower quality of life scores and increased rates of mental health disease. We felt the need to evaluate the emotional and psychosocial well being of patients that had undergone either enucleation or evisceration within our practice and to identify whether further emotional support or counselling would be beneficial.

We identified all patients over the age of 18 years that had undergone an evisceration or enucleation performed at the Princess Alexandra Eye
Pavilion, Edinburgh between the 1st January 2011 and 1st January 2018. We aimed to find out more about their experience of living with an
artificial eye via targeted questionnaires

We identified 52 patients that had undergone either enucleation or evisceration and 39 of these patients were still living. We attempted to contact all 39 patients and received 25 responses. Pain was identified as the predominant cause for patients proceeding with eye removal. The impact of an eye amputation caused significant loss of confidence after surgery and our study indicated that patients wanted to know more about the operation: the outcome, the prosthesis and how it will look/fit. With nearly half of patients requesting more emotional support both in the pre and postoperative stages it seems they were not adequately emotionally prepared for what was to come

Loss of an eye following destructive eye surgery and use of an artificial eye has wide ranging emotional, psychosocial and economic impacts on the patient. The care should not stop when the patient leaves the operating theatre. To maximise postoperative quality of life, a holistic approach, involving counsellors and
psychotherapy is essential.