A Case Series of Eye Removal Surgeries: Five Years of Experience at a Tertiary Eye Care Centre in Malaysia

BACKGROUND: Eye removal surgeries, also called anophthalmic surgeries, are usually performed for a painful blinded eye due to various underlying causes. In this case review, we intended to study the indications, the types of anophthalmic surgeries, and post-operative complications related to eye removal surgeries.

METHOD:  Five years of retrospective case review of surgical eye removals was conducted from 1st June 2018 to 31st May 2023 at Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz (HCTM), University of Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Medical record files were used to analyse the age, gender, affected eye, types of surgeries, and indications of the eye removal surgery.

RESULTS:  Fourteen eyes underwent anophthalmic surgeries inclusive of evisceration (78.57%, n = 11), enucleation (14.29%, n = 2), and exenteration (7.14%, n = 1). Among the evisceration group, 63.64% (n = 7) were due to endophthalmitis, 27.27% (n = 3) were due to ocular trauma, and 9.09% (n = 1) were done for a painful blind due to neovascular glaucoma. Two enucleation surgeries were performed for retinoblastoma and one exenteration for orbital metastatic malignancy.

CONCLUSION:  The preferred choice of anophthalmic surgery was in favour of evisceration, especially when the underlying causes were due to benign conditions. The most common indications of anophthalmic surgeries were endophthalmitis, trauma, and malignancies. Enucleation and exenteration were performed mainly for the blinded eye due to the intraocular malignancies and malignancy with an extraocular spread. A fairly lesser number of anophthalmic surgeries over the five years could imply an improvement in the conservative management approach of a painful blinded eye.