Cateract removal & coumadin

[Georgia]

My neighbor is on coumadin for an artificial mitral valve. A couple of weeks ago he had a cataract removed; they took him off coumadin for 5 days prior to surgery and 2 days after - no bridging.

This sounds incredibly extreme to me; but perhaps there's special bleeding involved with eye surgery????

I'm sure some folks here have had cataracts removed or are familiar with it. Will you comment?

 

[warrenr]

Georgia,

Here are a couple of links.

http://merck.micromedex.com/index.asp?page=alertsarchive&news_id=5096&alert=MD

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12719198&dopt=Citation

Shame on the surgeon

 

[Rich]

Thanks for the great info Warren,
I will be facing cataract surgery sometime in the future.
As a side note I have stopped my Coumadin a number of times for various procedures, but these days I measure the time in hours, not days.
In other words depending on what time of day you take your medication, the time between when you stop and when the procedure is run could easily exceed the 'normal' three day thing.
Georgia,
That surgeon may be a good eye doctor but it sounds like he doesn't understand Coumadin, or the risks involved.
But then what's new?
I do hope your nieghbor survived OK.
Rich

 

[Ross]

I swear, if you play with statistics, someone is going to die because of it sooner or later. It's the same old horror stories over and over again and again. These Doctors have got to get with the program and stop this stuff.

 

[Guest]

Few modern cataract removal techniques require stopping warfarin. If the doctor says "you could bleed to death" - run from the office. You don't want any doctor who might cause over a half-gallon of blood loss from your eye.

 

[Blanche]

Georgia:
Some years ago an eye dr told my husband that he would have to go off anticoagulation for cataract surgery. The eye dr said he could probably get treated with needles in the stomach, much like rabies treatment, but he didn't think it necessary. Al was so concerned that he put off the cataract surgery until a week after the night when he almost ran up the rear end of a large truck....with me and three other humans in the car!!!! The following Monday, I found a different doctor who said that he had done thousands of cataract surgeries and never once had any trouble with bleeding. Al had both eyes done while he was fully coagulated. I can attest to the fact that there was no blood at all.
Blanche

 

[hensylee]

when my brother had his done, I was led to a small room where I could watch the entire procedure (very close up to the eye - so close that the eye area was all there was on the TV screen) via closed circuit. It was not only very interesting, but it was very quick and NO BLEEDING. He was not, however, on coumadin at the time. It's been a number of yrs.

I had mine done a couple yrs ago one at the time, a month apart. No bleeding. I am not on coumadin, either.

If you ever need it, get it - it's a miracle. Sorta changes your 'outlook' on things.

 

[Georgia]

Thanks, folks

Thanks, folks

Warren, I'm going to print these out and give them to my neighbor asap - he has the other eye scheduled. At least I won't feel guilty if he opts to stop his coumadin and has a problem. Thanks for the links.

Since I didn't know anything about cataract surgery myself, I didn't feel I could say anything to him. Now I will, however.

Thanks for all your replies.

 

[lance]

Neighbour's warfarin levels now

Neighbour's warfarin levels now

Hi Georgia

Glad to learn neighbour withdrawn from warfarin for 7 days is OK.

Is his INR back in range?

Sandra

 

[Georgia]

I don't know if his inr's back in range. He has a really haphazard approach to the whole thing so I haven't asked.

And he didn't have a problem - thank God. The whole thing really gave me the willies when he said he wasn't having bridging therapy; then I read the stuff Warren linked me to and stopping coumadin isn't recommended for cataract surgery at all !!!!!!!!

It's a wonder that any of us make it through this.

 

[hensylee]

one other interesting fact about cataract surgery is that you are not 'out', just tranq-ed a little to keep you still. During the surgery you can see everything. I kept following/watching my dr's instruments and what he was doing and he told me to 'stop it!'. If there had been any bleeding I would have seen it. nada.