Eye wash procedure
Eye wash or eye irrigation is the procedure of washing the eye under aseptic precautions. It is done to remove a foreign body from the eye, to remove inflammatory discharge from the eye, and before an eye operation.
The procedure of giving an eye wash is as follows:
- Make the patient lie down or sit up as convenient. Tilt the head backward in sitting position. Put mackintosh under the head in a lying down position and wrap a towel around his neck.
- Ask the patient or an assistant to hold a kidney tray below the eye to be washed. Wash your hands thoroughly well with soap and water. Open the patient’s eyelids.
- Soak a swab of cotton in sterile normal saline and squeeze it into the patient’s eye, first under the upper eyelid and then under the lower eyelid.
- Repeat the procedure till the eye becomes clean.
- Dry the eyelids from outside using dry cotton swabs.
