What is floater surgery?

When somebody comes in here to ask about floater surgery, the first thing I would like to know is actually what they're seeing. Is it something that's flying by all the time? Is it something that they only notice when they're outside looking at a blue sky or at white wool? Is it interfering with day-to-day life? I mean, you know, I've had a lady who is an art historian, and every time she looked up at a painting, she'd see all this clump [SP] in the way and it was really stopping her working effectively. That was somebody who desperately wanted surgery and who I operated on in the end. And there's people who come in saying that they see something floating by, it's not really bothering them. So, I have a discussion with them about what they're actually seeing and then I will usually do a scan to see if I can see any floaters right in front of the macula, in front of the central vision, and I will obviously examine the eye itself and see if I can see the floaters as well, which quite frequently we can see. It's quite reassuring for people to know that they're not, you know, kind of going bananas, that they are actually seeing something that we as doctors can see as well. And then it's a case of discussing how much they're bothered, what the risks of surgery are because there are always risks to surgery. Any surgery by any surgeon anywhere, there's always a small risk of something not going as well as we want it to, and those risks are very small, but they're not zero. For example, people with floaters, obviously, have normally good vision so that their floaters might be bad but they're still seeing 20/20. So, it's a very, very kind of precarious balance as to when you do and don't operate. And then usually I would tell people to have a think about it, give it, you know, a couple of weeks, couple of months depending the person and how long they've had problems and what's bothering them. And then I usually see them again and discuss the whole thing again, including the complications quite extensively. And then if they're very committed and very bothered, I would consider surgery but only if and when.