Patients may see scary lights during eye surgery

Hmmm. Could the scary lights be LASERS beaming into your eyeball? Actually the answer is 'no.' The real story is even better:

Patients who are awake while undergoing surgery on the gel-like vitreous inside the eye often report seeing frightening lights ... a new study shows. As a result, many patients say they would opt for general anesthesia the next time around.

Indeed, this new report indicates patients do not want to be awake while surgeons are operating on their eyeballs! Furthermore:

A frightening visual experience is clinically significant because "it may lead to side effects that could complicate the surgery, such as increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and fast breathing."

Huh? It almost sounds like seeing a scalpel cutting into your eyeball could make you nervous!

And last and most audacious of all:

"A frightening visual experience is also likely to decrease patients' satisfaction with the surgery."

This amazing research brought to us by Dr. Colin S. H. Tan of the Eye Institute at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. Sadly I couldn't find his email to send him some congratulations on this research that was published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.