Is eye redness and swelling normal after a vitrectomy?

What's normal

Vitrectomy involves small incisions through the white of the eye. AAO describes the surgeon making a small cut in the sclera, and ASRS notes that many procedures now use self-sealing, sutureless incisions roughly half a millimeter in size. The eye reacts to that with redness and inflammation.

StatPearls' description of the early period after retinal surgery includes lid swelling, conjunctival swelling, and corneal swelling along with the associated inflammation. AAO notes that patients typically wear a patch for a few days and use eye drops for up to 4 weeks, and those drops are part of what calms the redness down.

A patch of bright red on the white of the eye, called a subconjunctival hemorrhage, can also appear and looks alarming. It is essentially a bruise on the surface and fades over a couple of weeks.

Usually most noticeable in week 1, clearly fading by weeks 2 to 4.

When it stops being normal

Redness that is getting worse instead of better, especially with thick discharge, increasing pain, or falling vision, needs a same-day call. ASRS lists infection among the possible complications of vitrectomy, and infection inside the eye is a true emergency. Increasing pain not relieved by your prescribed drops is also on the call-now list.