Cataract surgery and warfarin - Atrial Fibrillati...

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Cataract surgery and warfarin

11 Replies

Hi,

Has anyone had cataract surgery whilst being permanently on warfarin.

Did you have to come off warfarin before hand?

Any special points to discuss with surgeon?

I've had to come off warfarin twice before, once for a CT Scan and once for knee replacement surgery. No sweat. Not sure about eyes though.

John

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11 Replies

Hi

I had caterac opp November last year and the only thing they said to me They said they would do INR test just before opp as I self test I done it myself in their clinic as long as it was no more than 2.5 they would operate With diet I made sure it was only 2.1 on the day.Hope this helpful to you

CarolB

in reply to

Thanks Carol.

I think I'll go down the diet road too. I also self test so I'll take my COAGUCHEK along with me. If it had been today I was 2.3!

John

Judydiane profile image
Judydiane in reply to

I had catarac surgery and was told there was no need to stop anti cogulant because there's bleeding from the procedure.

irene75359 profile image
irene75359

I had lens replacement - the same procedure - before I had AFib. I had one tiny tear-drop of blood in the corner of my eye, that was it, so it certainly doesn't seem to be a procedure that leads to much bleeding.

Bagrat profile image
Bagrat

Husband has had two cataracts sorted. Just had to phone through his INR the day before ( our surgery uses Coaguchek machine and software. No problems. No need to stop warfarin

ILowe profile image
ILowe

In anticipation of cataract surgery next year I recently asked an eye surgeon (In Switzerland). He said he operates on warfarin patients routinely. No need to change anything. He has done hundreds of operations and never had a problem. Once upon a time, they injected something into the eye muscles. The modern way is to use only eye drops. No injections means no risk of a bleed in the eye muscles. Teasing, he invited me to have it done in Switzerland because if there was a mistake, he could be sued!! He also said that the cost was coming down significantly: clinic costs reduced up to a third in 2018, because new methods were quicker and they could do more customers in a day.

usual precautions. Of course, tell the surgeon in advance about all the meds you are on. Ask what they put in the sedative. Check this yourself on the drugs interactions sites. Make sure there is no adrenaline.

in reply to ILowe

Thank you very much for that, as usual you are a great source of information.

Dadog profile image
Dadog

I'm having cataract procedure on 5thDecember. At the pre-med I asked about stopping anti coag (I'm on a NOAC) and was told there was no problem and at worst, I could have a bloodshot eye for a while.

in reply to Dadog

Thanks very much Dadog, most reassuring.

djmnet profile image
djmnet

I had cataract surgery in the past 6 weeks, but I'm on apixaban and there was no issue about my anticoagulant (I did disclose to the surgeon and he was not concerned). There's not a lot of bleeding involved in cataract surgery, so I wouldn't worry too much. And what a thrill it is to be able to have 20-20 vision again!

in reply to djmnet

Thank you for that. Yes, I'm looking forward to not having to clean my specs all the time thinking they are dirty! 😊

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