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Why do they tape your eyes shut during surgery?
I am a 45 year old female and I will have surgery under general anesthesia. I heard that they tape eyes shut during a surgery. Why do they tape your eyes shut during surgery?
8 Answers
Yes we do to protect your conjuciva from injury like possible scratches
Just to protect the cornea from drying up and inadvertently getting scratched. In awake state, we can blink and prevent corneal drying up, wear dark glasses to protect from wind, etc. All these functions are not available when you are rendered unconscious.
The blink reflex is suppressed. Open eyelids will lead to drying of the conjunctiva.
For protection. During anesthesia, eyes get dry. Also could suffer lacerations or abrasions during the procedure.
To prevent damage to the cornea
During surgery, if you don’t tape the eyes, they can open slightly and get dry which subsequently can cause corneal abrasions.
Hope this helps.
We tape eyes to protect them during surgery and so they don't dry up. For some procedures, we may put a sterile lubricant in the eye prior to or instead of taping them.
Steven Dain
To prevent eye injury.