Keep the shield on until the following morning. Then, gentle remove it and the underlying pad. Use cotton-wool with boiled water to clean the eyelid margins from the secretions that have built up overnight and then instil the first drops of Pred Forte, Chloramphenicol and Cyclopentolate. Leave at least one minute between each drop. Stop using the glaucoma drops you needed before the operation.

Careful review of the healing process is necessary after the operation, the timings for which are dependent on how the eye heals following surgery. Outpatient review in the early period following surgery is important as the surgery itself and allows us to manage the pressure in your eye if it goes either too high or too low. You will need drops very frequently initially and can expect to be on at least one drop of steroid (to reduce scarring and inflammation) for about 6 months following surgery.

It is usual for the vision in your operated eye to be blurred for about 3 months following surgery. The main cause for this is a slight forward movement in the crystalline lens in your eye, which changes your glasses prescription. You may need to have your glasses changed at some stage, but avoid doing so until the eye has settled down properly following surgery.

If the pressure in the eye is too high following surgery, you will need to have one or more of the releasable sutures, implanted around the scleral flap, removed. This is easily done at the slit lamp. I may or may not encourage you to massage the eyelid behind the back of the scleral flap to increase drainage of fluid from the eye. Once all the releasable sutures have been removed (usually there are three of them), further reductions in pressure can be achieved by placing a sharp needle under the flap. Once again, this can be done at the slit-lamp under local anaesthetic.