Procedure
- Allow the patient to bend their head backwards or ask them to lie down on the examination table.
- Stand behind the patient. Provide a tissue to wipe off the excess fluid (fluorescein stains clothing).
- Remove the fluorescein strips from the sterile packaging, without touching the yellow-coloured ends.
- Wet the yellow ends with a drop of sterile physiological saline solution (avoid contact with the strip and the bottle of liquid) and tap off the excess liquid.
- Pull down the lower eyelid with the fingers of your one hand, and ask the patient to look up.
- With the yellow-coloured end of the strip, briefly dab [Figure 55] the conjunctiva underneath the cornea and ask the patient to blink their eyelids.
Figure 55
- If necessary, repeat this a few times until sufficient colouring of the eye globe has been achieved.
- As soon as the required level of colouring is reached, the patient is allowed to hold their head straight or sit upright (unless the examination requires the patient to be in a different position).