Can you fly after retinal detachment surgery?

Answers (5)

• Mauricio Filho

  04/23/2013

  I had a gas bubble injected into my right eye on a Monday. Two days later (Wed) had laser and freezing done. Two days after (Friday), a second laser procedure done. On the next Monday a third same laser procedure done. By then the bubble had already disappeared so my Dr. told me I was ok to fly as long as I did not lift anything heave and so on and so forth. I had a business trip scheduled that Thursday and was very afraid but went anyway. I did not feel anything during the flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Dallas. At arrival, about 10 minutes after I got out of the plane I felt very uncomfortable pressure in my eye, maybe because Dallas is about 600 ft above sea level. I did not hurt but it was uncomfortable. After about 3 hours it got better. Throughout my 4 day stay there I noticed that whenever I walked too much or was in a car for over about 15 minutes this eye pressure would bother me a little bit. Flew back to Florida with no problems and after two weeks from my first retinal tear procedure I'm still staying put and my eye is ok. Under the same circumstances I would not do what I did again unless it was for something of critical importance as it was.

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• cauliflowerbat

  08/13/2012

  Retinal detachment surgery are applied to people that neurosensory retina is separated from the retinal pigment epithelium. The process of the surgery is what like to wallpaper peels away from the living room wall. If you need to fly after surgery, you are not safe to fly if a gas bubble has been used. That because the decompressed air cabin will cause the gas in your eyeball to expand and increase your eye pressure tremendously that make you feel painful. It is likely damages your optical nerve.

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• steven

  08/13/2012

  Do not do that. The retina separates from the underlying layers of the eyeball is called retinal detachment. Most retinal detachments happen when a tear or hole in the retina fluids to leak between the retinal layers, so that the retina would be detached. And the rhegmatogenous is the most common type of retinal detachment. Normally, doing a surgery can be treated the retinal detachment. The aim of retinal detachment surgery is to glue the neurosensory retina back to where it should be. After the surgery, you would feel uncomfortable and blurry vision would last six weeks at maximum. During the period, you had better not to take any sports and fly.

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• eatmyhartout

  08/13/2012

  It should depend on which type of retinal detachment surgery you have. There are three types of surgery for retinal detachment,The scleral buckling operation,Pneumatic retinopexy, Vitrectomy. If you had the pneumatic retinopexy operation you will be strongly advised to avoid air travel for at least three to four weeks. This is because the change in altitude during the flight can make the air bubble much bigger and this can cause serious problems in your eye.

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• Rick Johnson

  08/13/2012

  You'd better cancel the travel. Or travel after 3 months. You should review in hospital in these 3 months to make sure your eyes are ok. And keep TV or computer away. Have enough sleep, eat some vegetables and fruits, and something with vitamin B1 and inosine. and when you sleep. Remember to take care of your eyes.

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