Removal of an eye is known as enucleation and is generally carried out when a patient has suffered a severe trauma, particularly where the eyeball or globe has been ruptured and it’s unlikely that sight will be recovered. There may also be concerns about a rare condition called sympathetic ophthalmia, where the good eye becomes inflamed after the affected eye is damaged.
In some cases, enucleation is recommended if a large eye cancer cannot be removed or destroyed, or where treating the cancer leaves the patient with little or no sight and a permanently painful eye.
Removing the contents of an eye only, which leaves the outer coating of the eye attached to eye socket muscles, is called evisceration.
Implants are used to replace either the entire eye or to fill an eviscerated eye.
