Tapping the inner eye

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:13:43 GMT

Just be careful not to touch or otherwise stimulate (eg cause an air current near) the cornea - the corneal reflex is one of the last to go - lack of one usually means death is here or near!

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Kerry Spain — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:54:37 GMT

I do believe the term you are looking for is 'palpebral reflex'.

The level of consciousness can be evaluated by gently tapping or touching the medial and lateral canthi of the eyelid this elicits the palpebral reflex and closure of the eyelids.

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Kate Claxton DipAVN(Med)VN — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:25:06 GMT

The area you tap is called the medial canthus of the eye - less confusion than 'inner eye'

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Lynn Perry — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:50:18 GMT

Thanks Soph, you definitely hit the nail right on the head!

And to the folks who thought I was referring to something else, it definitely caught your attention :D

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Katie Tallett RVN MBVNA — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:21:12 GMT

haha- me too

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Fiona Leathers — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:19:29 GMT

I read this as tapping (ie draining fluid) from the inner eye!!! Made me squirm but now I've read this it makes much more sense!

Re: Tapping the inner eye

Sophie Bedford RVN CertVNECC — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:17:50 GMT

Hi Lynn,

What you're checking for is one of the key reflexes to guage depth of anaesthesia in dogs and cats (note this reflex isn't accurate in bunnies!) ... It's the palpebral (or Blink) reflex and is present when the animal is in the first 2 stages of anaesthesia.

When the animal has no blink reflex we then check to see where the eye position is, we want the eye to be down (ie not staring straight ahead). If the eye is staring and no blink reflex then the animal is quite deep and would consider turning them down on the iso/sevoflo rate.

Once the blink reflex starts to come back on recovery the eye should come back up to a normal position and you know that they are then to be closely monitored to take them off Oxygen/take tube out.

I hope this helps!