What happens during Macular Translocation Surgery?

First Surgery (Macular Translocation Surgery)

• You will be comfortably sedated and able to hear your doctor talking, but you will not feel the surgery.
• If you have a cataract, it will be removed at the beginning of surgery. A lens implant will be placed at the end of surgery or at a future date, if possible.
• The vitreous gel, a jelly-like substance in the eye, will be removed.
• Fluid will be placed under the retina to lift it away from the abnormal blood vessels (creating a retinal detachment).
• The edges of the retina will be cut and the macula moved to a new location. The abnormal blood vessels will be either laser treated or removed.
• The edges of the retina will be laser treated and silicone oil will be inserted to hold the retina in place.
• Surgery lasts about 2 hours.

Second Surgery (Eye Muscle Surgery)

• The second surgery will be performed eight weeks after the macular translocation.
• A surgeon who is specialized in performing eye muscle surgery will operate on the eye muscles to correct the tilted vision.
• The eye muscle surgery takes about one hour.

Third Surgery (Oil Removal Surgery)

• Three to four weeks after the muscle surgery, you will have a third surgery.
• During this surgery, the retinal surgeon will remove the silicone oil from the eye.
• This is a 30-minute procedure which is done in the operating room.
• No positioning is required after this surgery.

For detailed information about your treatment before, during and after surgery, please review our surgery information sheet (Requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®).