Time to Take the Eye

An enucleation spoon, believe it or not

As eye doctors we have this goal through training that ultimately results in saving vision and protecting the eye. But there are times when instead of keeping a bad eye, the best thing we can do for a patient is get rid of the eye. This is a process called enucleation, and while it's a generic procedure name many specialties use to refer to removal, it means only one thing to all eye doctors.

We recently had a patient who developed an infection in the eye. I happened to be the one to see him first on his visit to the emergency room with severe eye pain and redness. The infection was obvious and he as admitted for treatment. Several things, including surgeries and injections into the eye, were tried to save his eye. But ultimately, the pain and discomfort of a now blind eye became too great.

Only after removal of the eye did he completely turn around and become his old, easy going self.