Is Vaping Medical Cannabis Safe Post Cataract Surgery?

Posted on Fri, 10 Nov 2017

Question: When is it safe to resume vaping medical cannabis after cataract surgery

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
No problems due to cataract surgery

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on Healthcaremagic.

Vaping cannabis has its negatives and therefore is not recommended. However, cataract surgery itself is not a hindrance to the same provided that a couple of years have elapsed after the surgery.

Let me know if I could help further.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (14 minutes later)

The short and long answers are contradictory. Are you saying no to vaping due to vaping purity issues? I’m wondering about changes in intraocular pressure from CBDs, not whether cannabis is safe. So let me modify my question to cannabis ... CBD ... and see if that gives you more clarity particularly since two years is not the recovery time for laser assisted cataract surgery, it is 1 month before vigorous physical activity such as running and weight lifting hence I’m VERY confused by the two year time frame suggested unless years is a typo.

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (47 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
2 weeks, not years

Detailed Answer:
Although vaping can be better than traditional smoking, due to lack of regulations producers can essential shove whatever ingredients they want into a cartridge, as long as one small component happens to be cannabis, and you could be consuming all sorts of nasty chemicals and not even know it. Another concern is that cheap plastic parts may release toxic chemicals when heated at higher temperatures. Furthermore, you need to note that vaporizing does not do anything to mitigate the possible effects of cannabis, such as dependency or psychological effects. It can therefore lead to marijuana addiction (or cannabis use disorders).

I am not worried about rise of intraocular pressure or ocular issues.

I am sorry that 2 years was indeed a typo. I had meant 2 weeks. Pardon me for the same.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (18 minutes later)

That makes sense now ... and we grow our own to avoid pesticides and other contaminants, and have a vape device that uses flower and vaporizes it. I prefer a water pipe to the vaporizer, but I was worried about smoke in near my eyes. I rarely smoke, but being off exercise for my fibromyalgia has made it impossible to sleep because of increased pain. However it’s not quite two weeks, and my eyes are far more important than lack of sleep so I’ll just hang tough for another couple of days. Thank you very much!

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (45 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Glad to be of assistance

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the inputs. Let me now if I could provide any further assistance.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar