BPH meds and Cataract Surgery

[KayakerNC]

Age 74, male.
Will taking FloMax (tamsulosin) for BPH limit or eliminate any IOL choices for cataract surgery?  
Would I be better off to just take Avodart or Proscar rather than my current prescription combination (Jalyn) of FloMax and Avodart?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[KayakerNC]

Saw my primary MD today.  He said that the Flomax relaxes muscles in the bladder and prostate, and the Avodart shrinks the prostate.  He said that after a year or so, if the prostate has gone down and reduced the problems, they like to eliminate the Flomax, as it is no longer necessary.  Long story short, I now have a prescription for Avodart alone.  I realize that it may not reduce the surgery risk, but one less drug is a good thing.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Decisions to stay on flomax should be based on whether it is helping your prostate symptoms.  Stopping flomax is not felt to eliminate the risk of FIS.
JCH MD

[KayakerNC]

The Flomax was not working very well, initially and my MD switched me to Jalyn, mostly because of the CombaT Study which looked at combination regimens for BPH.  The Jalyn (Flomax & Avodart) does a GREAT job and I am pretty much symptom free.  
My thought was that switching to Avodart alone would leave me with one less drug going into my system, keep my good results, and, hopefully reduce the IFIS risk.  
But if stopping Flomax won't reduce the risk, it seems like one of those "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" situations.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

No do not change your medicines if Flomax works. Even if you stopped or switched to another type you could still have floppy iris syndrome.  If it works keep on it and tell your eye surgeon. Special techniques and instruments and drops make FIS not the problem it use to be when we first saw it.

JCHMD