Laser Eye Surgery

[BittyBabyGrower]

Do you do them at your NICU? We do them in the unit in a special room, but what I really want to know is...do you sedate before and with what, how do you restrain the kids and do you medicate with Tylenol before/after the procedure. We are trying to redo our policy/procedure for this....we are using conscious sedation, which really isn't working and then once the kids are done screaming they pretty much lapse into a coma after...this is a problem with the kids coming in from home for the surgery...then they are one on one as they have been to the outside and they are totally out and have to stay 24 hours. Yuk. I'm not sure the sedation is really worth it...if we could use a papoose board to keep them still and some glucose they might do just as well and then give them some Tylenol after for the inevitable headache they have (adults have headaches after laser eye surgery for up to 24 hours).

Opinions....thoughts....anything would be appreciated! :balloons: :balloons:

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

I didn't have Lasik...I had a detaching retina, so it is a lot similar. So if you all are doing this, I wonder why our eye docs don't. I'll have to ask. Thanks :)

Oh, I'm so sorry for assuming it was Lasik! :imbar

I would ask the docs - mainly because I wonder how they can be zapping the vessels if the baby still has control of his/her eye movement. That's the entire reason we use pavulon for the procedure.

The other thing we do sometimes with a bad BPD-er is to give stress doses of IV hydrocortisone Q6H for one day, starting immediately after the surgery. It just helps them get off the vent a little quicker. The eye docs don't mind it because any anti-inflammatory is a good thing as far as they're concerned.

[Mulan]

Thanks for the link.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

Oh and when I said a splitting headache, I meant after the procedure...the procedure itself does not hurt, it is mainly because your eyes are clamped open and the pupils are so dilated that any light at all is terrible....but the eyes themselves do not hurt. Tylenol and Motrin were enough to make it better.