, pinguecula and conjunctival lesions © Insight Eye Surgery All diagrams are licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You are free to copy and use diagrams with acknowledgement to What are pterygium, pinuecula and What happens in surgery? Insight Eye Surgery and link to www.insighteyesurgery.com.au conjunctival lesions? This is day surgery only, which takes Pterygium (pronounced tur-IJ-ee-um) and around 45 minutes. pinguecula (pronounced pin-GWEK-yoo-la) Even though the surgery is relatively short, are growths on the , the clear front expect to spend several hours (most of window of the eye, and the , the the day) at the hospital as there will be thin filmy membrane that covers the white time before surgery preparing you, and part of the eye, the . Both types of time afterwards where you recover from growth are believed to be caused by dry the anaesthetic. The surgery is most eye and environmental elements such as frequently performed under sedation with wind, dust and light. local anaesthetic to paralyse the eye and Sometimes other growths or “lesions” can numb the area around it. Dr Adams will develop which may mimic a pterygium or remove a small flap of tissue – a “graft” - pingecula, but may be pre-cancerous or from underneath the and graft it into cancerous growths. We refer to these as the space created by the removed growth, ocular surface dysplasia or neoplasia. At attaching it with either special tissue glue the time of your surgery, Dr Adams will or stitches. If Dr Adams has concerns send a tissue sample to the pathologist to about possible dysplasia, she will generally check if there is any evidence of dysplasia not use a graft. Your eye is then covered or neoplasia. with a protective eye pad which can be How do we treat pterygium, removed the next morning. The eye is quite pinguecula and other conjunctival uncomfortable for the first few days so plan lesions? at least five days off work. If you have no symptoms and Dr Adams Risks of surgery is satisfied that there are no suspicious The pterygium or pingeculum or lesion features, in many cases no treatment is may recur. To reduce the chances of this needed. If these growths becomes red happening, make sure you use your drops and irritated, eye drops or ointments can as directed and wear sunglasses. reduce the inflammation. If the growths Rarely, you may have double vision which become large enough to threaten sight or usually settles, and an extremely rare cause persistent discomfort, or display any complication is for the eye to be damaged features of dysplasia, they can be removed leading to visual loss. surgically. Some people also want them removed for cosmetic reasons.

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